The earliest post-ACHEULiAN industries in much of North Africa are those designated Mousterian. In many areas the Acheulian appears to have been brought to an end by a period of exceptional aridity when much of North Africa, away from such favoured places as Morocco and south-eastern Libya, was largely depopulated. It was not until a climatic amelioration, of perhaps about 100,000 years ago, that human settlement is again attested, and it is marked by the Mousterian (or Leval-loiso-Mousterian) industries. Flake tools were characteristic, notably sub-triangular points and side-scrapers, made on flakes removed from carefully prepared cores. The earliest North African Mousterian is probably that from the Maghreb, from which its Saharan variant, the Aterian, is presumably derived. To the east, Levalloiso-Mousterian industries occur in Libya, as at Haua FTeah, and at numerous sites in the Nile valley.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied