The European Mousterian is the product of Neanderthals. It existed roughly from 160,000 to 40,000 BP.[6]
Some assemblages, namely those from Pech de l'Aze, include exceptionally small points prepared using the Levallois technique among other prepared core types, causing some researchers to suggest that these flakes take advantage of greater grip strength possessed by Neanderthals.[7]
In North Africa and the Near East, Mousterian tools were produced by anatomically modern humans. In the Eastern Mediterranean, for example, assemblages produced by Neanderthals are indistinguishable from those made by Qafzeh type modern humans.[8] The Mousterian industry in North Africa is estimated to be 315,000 years old.[2]
Possible variants are Denticulate, Charentian (Ferrassie & Quina) named after the Charente region,[9] Typical, and the Mousterian Traditional Acheulian (MTA) Type-A and Type-B.[10] The industry continued alongside the new Châtelperronian industry during the 45,000-40,000 BP period.[11]
Locations
Mousterian artifacts have been found in Haua Fteah in Cyrenaica and other sites in Northwest Africa.[12]
The archaeological cave site of Azykh contains Mousterian relics in the overlying strata. In this cave, a lower jaw of a hominid named Azykhantrop has been found. It is supposed that this finding belongs to a pre-neanderthal species.[14][15]
The most important sites with significant Neanderthal and Mousterian finds in Croatia are Krapina, Vindija, Velika pećina and Veternica, located in the north-western part of Croatia and the region of Hrvatsko zagorje.[16][17][18][19][20] Mousterian industry sites on Istrian peninsula are Romualdova pećina and an open-air site at Campanož.[21] Sites on the Adriatic coast and its hinterland are Mujina pećina, with a Mousterian stratigraphic sequence, and Velika pećina in Kličevica with finds approximately 40,000 years old that are late Mousterian.[22] An underwater Mousterian excavation site at Kaštel Štafilić - Resnik recovered about 100 artefacts of which half are tools, Mousterian centripetal cores and side scrapers, several pseudotools, numerous pieces of chert and Levallois method artifacts.[23][24][25] Other underwater Paleolithic finds are a single Mousterian tool offshore of Povljana on the island of Pag and stone tools of possible Mousterian type at a depth of 3 m at Stipanac in Lake Prokljan.[26] In the area north of the town of Zadar an extensive series of sites exist where usually small Micro-mousterian industry tools, denticulates and notched pieces are found.[25]
Stone scrapers for cleaning and working leather, Mousterian Culture, Israel, 250,000-50,000 BP
Mousterian Culture and Late Stone Age Stone Tools. Notch for sharpening wood, and denticulate for sawing wood and bone. Rosh En Mor and En Aqev. 250,000-22,000 BP. Israel
Mousterian & Aurignacian Cultures, Stone Burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel
Mousterian Culture, stone spearheads, 250,000-50,000. Israel Museum
^Callaway, Ewen (20 August 2014). "Neanderthals: Bone technique redrafts prehistory". Nature. 512 (7514): 242. Bibcode:2014Natur.512..242C. doi:10.1038/512242a. ISSN0028-0836. PMID25143094. From the Black Sea to the Atlantic coast of France, these [Mousterian] artefacts and Neanderthal remains disappear from European sites at roughly the same time, 39,000–41,000 years ago, Higham's team conclude. The data challenge arguments that Neanderthals endured in refuges in the southern Iberian Peninsula until as recently as 28,000 years ago
^ abRichter, Daniel; Grün, Rainer; Joannes-Boyau, Renaud; Steele, Teresa E.; Amani, Fethi; Rué, Mathieu; Fernandes, Paul; Raynal, Jean-Paul; Geraads, Denis (2017-06-07). "The age of the hominin fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, and the origins of the Middle Stone Age". Nature. 546 (7657): 293–296. Bibcode:2017Natur.546..293R. doi:10.1038/nature22335. ISSN0028-0836. PMID28593967. S2CID205255853.
^Haviland, William A.; Prins, Harald E. L.; Walrath, Dana; McBride, Bunny (24 February 2009). The Essence of Anthropology. Cengage Learning. p. 87. ISBN978-0-495-59981-4. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
^Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (1999). A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. p. 408. ISBN0-631-17423-0. Retrieved 1 August 2016. "the classic Mousterian can be identified after perhaps 160,000 BP and lasts until c. 40,000 BP in Europe."
^Dibble, Harold L.; McPherron, Shannon P. (October 2006). "The Missing Mousterian". Current Anthropology. 47 (5): 777–803. doi:10.1086/506282. S2CID145362900.
^Shea, J. J. (2003). "Neandertals [sic], competition and the origin of modern human behaviour in the Levant". Evolutionary Anthropology. 12: 173–187. doi:10.1002/evan.10101. S2CID86608040.
^Lan Shaw, Robert Jameson, ed. (2008). A Dictionary of Archaeology. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN9780470751961.[page needed]
^Dolukhanov, Pavel (2004). The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus. Routledge. ISBN9781317892229.[page needed]
^Karavanić, Ivor; Vukosavljević, Nikola; Janković, Ivor; Ahern, James C.M.; Smith, Fred H. (November 2018). "Paleolithic hominins and settlement in Croatia from MIS 6 to MIS 3: Research history and current interpretations". Quaternary International. 494: 152–166. Bibcode:2018QuInt.494..152K. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.09.034. S2CID134269685.
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Stone scrapers for cleaning and working leather, Mousterian Culture, Israel, 250,000-50,000 BP![Le Moustier Neanderthal skull reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin[27]](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/38/Le_Moustier_skull_in_Berlin_reconstitution.jpg/103px-Le_Moustier_skull_in_Berlin_reconstitution.jpg)
Levallois points
Mousterian Culture and Late Stone Age Stone Tools. Notch for sharpening wood, and denticulate for sawing wood and bone. Rosh En Mor and En Aqev. 250,000-22,000 BP. Israel
Mousterian & Aurignacian Cultures, Stone Burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel
Mousterian Culture, stone spearheads, 250,000-50,000. Israel Museum
![Le Moustier Neanderthal skull reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin[27]](/wiki/File:Le_Moustier_skull_in_Berlin_reconstitution.jpg)
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