Mousterian

A Middle Paleolithic culture that is defined by the development of a wide variety of specialized tools made with prepared-core knapping techniques, such as spear points. It is named for the first such artifacts recovered from the lower rock shelter at Le Moustier, Dordogne, France. Stone tools, scrapers, and points found in the cave came to be recognized as the flint industry present throughout Europe during first half of last glaciation (Würm) and associated with Neanderthal. The earliest Mousterian goes back to the Riss glaciation, but most of it comes into the late middle Würm glaciation, giving a total lifespan from 180,000 BC until c 30,000 BP. Flintwork of Mousterian type (with racloirs, triangular points made on flakes, and - in some variants - well-made handaxes) has been found over most of the unglaciated parts of Eurasia, as well as in the Near East and North Africa (in the latter two areas, it constitutes the Middle Palaeolithic). Three major regional variants have been identified - West, East, and Levalloiso-Mousterian, each with sub-groups. In certain industries, called Levalloiso-Mousterian, the tools were made on flakes produced by the Levallois technique. It was a progressive stage in the manufacture of stone tools. Mousterian peoples mainly lived in cave mouths and rock shelters.

The term Mousterian, based on the site of Le Moustier in the Dordogne, southwest France, was originally applied to the epoch-making middle division of the Palaeolithic. Later it came to be regarded as a culture or group of cultures, but it is now used in many quarters in its old sense, referring to the period from the last interglacial through to about 35,000-40,000 be, when the Upper Palaeolithic begins in Europe and adjacent areas (see Tables 5 and 6, pages 418-9). It is generally thought that the Mousterian was the work of Neanderthal man; the evidence now available is mainly but not indisputably consistent with this view. Several kinds of Mousterian are known, notably the Mousterian of Acheulian tradition, which has hand axes, and the Char-entian, with an abundance of special kinds of racloir or side scraper. There is also a central European variant with leaf points. Less satisfactorily identified are the denticulate Mousterian and ‘typical’ The people of this time generally lived in caves and hunted such animals as reindeer, horse, red deer and bovines; one species often outnumbers all the others in a way that suggests specialization.