Mousterian

The culture was named after the type site of Le Moustier, three superimposed rock shelters in the Dordogne region of France.{{cite book |first1=William A. |last1=Haviland |first2=Harald E. L. |last2=Prins |first3=Dana |last3=Walrath |first4=Bunny |last4=McBride |title=The Essence of Anthropology |date=24 February 2009 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=978-0-495-59981-4 |page=87 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=AmvJ1XtnIQoC&pg=PA87 |access-date=23 November 2011}} Similar flintwork has been found all over unglaciated Europe and also the Near East and North Africa. Handaxes, racloirs, and points constitute the industry; sometimes a Levallois technique or another prepared-core technique was employed in making the flint flakes.{{cite book |first1=Mark |last1=Aldenderfer |first2=Alfred J. |last2=Andrea |first3=Kevin |last3=McGeough |first4=William E. |last4=Mierse |first5=Carolyn |last5=Neel |title=World History Encyclopedia |date=29 April 2010 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-85109-929-0 |page=330 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LEqaIGsT8SsC&pg=PA330 |access-date=23 November 2011}}

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|image1=Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte Berlin 069A (complete skull).jpg

|caption1=Le Moustier 1 Neanderthal skull, today in the Neues Museum, Berlin.{{cite web |last1=Bekker |first1=Henk |title=Neues Museum in Berlin 1175 |url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/henkbekker/38668688366/in/album-72157690275139525/ |date=23 October 2017}}

|image2=Pointe_Moustérienne_MHNT_PRE_2009.0.205.4_De_Maret.jpg

|caption2=Mousterian point

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File:Production of points & spearheads from a flint stone core, Levallois technique, Mousterian Culture, Tabun Cave, 250,000-50,000 BP (detail).jpg, Mousterian culture, Tabun Cave, Israel, 250,000–50,000 BP. Israel Museum]]

File:Raqefet entrance.jpg, where Mousterian remains have been found.]]

The European Mousterian is the product of Neanderthals. It existed roughly from 160,000 to 40,000 BP.{{cite book |editor1-last=Shaw |editor1-first=Ian |editor2-last=Jameson |editor2-first=Robert |title=A Dictionary of Archaeology |date=1999 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=0-631-17423-0 |page=408 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=8HKDtlPuM2oC&q=mousterian+40,000&pg=PA408 |access-date=1 August 2016}} "the classic Mousterian can be identified after perhaps 160,000 BP and lasts until c. 40,000 BP in Europe."

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.{{cite journal |last1=Dibble |first1=Harold L. |last2=McPherron |first2=Shannon P. |title=The Missing Mousterian |journal=Current Anthropology |date=October 2006 |volume=47 |issue= 5 |pages=777–803 |doi=10.1086/506282|s2cid=145362900 }}

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.{{cite journal | last1 = Shea | first1 = J. J. | year = 2003 | title = Neandertals [sic], competition and the origin of modern human behaviour in the Levant | journal = Evolutionary Anthropology | volume = 12 | pages = 173–187 | doi = 10.1002/evan.10101 | s2cid = 86608040 }} The Mousterian industry in North Africa is estimated to be 315,000 years old.

Possible variants are Denticulate, Charentian (Ferrassie & Quina) named after the Charente region,{{cite book |first1=Andrew |last1=Lock |first2=Charles R. |last2=Peters |title=Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution |series="Oxford Science Publications" series |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mVj4P8DCuqIC&pg=PA243 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=1999 |isbn=0-631-21690-1 |access-date=6 January 2012}}{{page needed|date=November 2019}} Typical, and the Mousterian Traditional Acheulian (MTA) Type-A and Type-B.{{cite web |title=Mousterian Industries |work=Stone Age Reference Collection |publisher=Institutt for Arkeologi, Kunsthistorie og Konservering, University of Oslo |date=2011 |url= http://www3.hf.uio.no/sarc/iakh/lithic/MOUST/mousterian.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120130060433/http://www3.hf.uio.no/sarc/iakh/lithic/MOUST/mousterian.html |archive-date=30 January 2012 |url-status=dead |access-date=6 January 2012}} The industry continued alongside the new Châtelperronian industry during the 45,000–40,000 BP period.{{Cite journal |doi=10.1038/nature13621 |pmid=25143113 |title=The timing and spatiotemporal patterning of Neanderthal disappearance |journal=Nature |volume=512 |issue=7514 |pages=306–309 |date=2014 |last1=Higham |first1=Tom |author-link=Thomas Higham (archaeologist) |last2=Douka |first2=Katerina |last3=Wood |first3=Rachel |last4=Ramsey |first4=Christopher Bronk |last5=Brock |first5=Fiona |last6=Basell |first6=Laura |last7=Camps |first7=Marta |last8=Arrizabalaga |first8=Alvaro |last9=Baena |first9=Javier |last10=Barroso-Ruíz |first10=Cecillio |last11=Bergman |first11=Christopher |last12=Boitard |first12=Coralie |last13=Boscato |first13=Paolo |last14=Caparrós |first14=Miguel |last15=Conard |first15=Nicholas J. |last16=Draily |first16=Christelle |last17=Froment |first17=Alain |last18=Galván |first18=Bertila |last19=Gambassini |first19=Paolo |last20=Garcia-Moreno |first20=Alejandro |last21=Grimaldi |first21=Stefano |last22=Haesaerts |first22=Paul |last23=Holt |first23=Brigitte |last24=Iriarte-Chiapusso |first24=Maria-Jose |last25=Jelinek |first25=Arthur |last26=Jordá Pardo |first26=Jesús F. |last27=Maíllo-Fernández |first27=José-Manuel |last28=Marom |first28=Anat |last29=Maroto |first29=Julià |last30=Menéndez |first30=Mario |display-authors=29 |bibcode=2014Natur.512..306H|s2cid=205239973 |hdl=1885/75138 |hdl-access=free }}

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• Mousterian artifacts have been found in Haua Fteah in Cyrenaica and other sites in Northwest Africa.{{cite book |title=An Encyclopedia of World History |editor-last=Langer |editor-first=William L. |edition=5th |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |location=Boston |date=1972 |isbn=0-395-13592-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaworl00will/page/9 9] |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaworl00will/page/9 }}
• Contained within a cave in the Syria region, along with a Neanderthaloid skeleton.
• Located in the Haibak valley of Afghanistan.
• Zagros and Central Iran
• The archaeological site of Atapuerca, Spain, contains Mousterian objects.
• Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar contains Mousterian objects.
• Uzbekistan has sites of Mousterian culture, including Teshik-Tash.
• Turkmenistan also has Mousterian relics.
• Siberia has many sites with Mousterian-style implements, e.g. Denisova Cave.
• Israel is one of the places where remains of both Neandertals and Homo sapiens sapiens have been found in association with Mousterian artifacts.{{cite book |editor-last=Levy |editor-first=T. |date=2001 |title=The Archaeology of Society in the Holy Land |location=London |publisher=Leicester University Press }}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}
• Lynford Quarry near Mundford, Norfolk, England, has yielded Mousterian tools.
• 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.{{Cite book |title=A Dictionary of Archaeology |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |date=2008 |isbn=9780470751961 |editor-last=Lan Shaw |editor-first=Robert Jameson }}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}{{Cite book |title=The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus |last=Dolukhanov |first=Pavel |publisher=Routledge |date=2004 |isbn=9781317892229 }}{{page needed|date=November 2019}}
• 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Karavanić|first1=Ivor|last2=Vukosavljević|first2=Nikola|last3=Janković|first3=Ivor|last4=Ahern|first4=James C.M.|last5=Smith|first5=Fred H.|date=November 2018|title=Paleolithic hominins and settlement in Croatia from MIS 6 to MIS 3: Research history and current interpretations|journal=Quaternary International|language=en|volume=494|pages=152–166|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.09.034|bibcode=2018QuInt.494..152K|s2cid=134269685}}{{Cite web|title=Paleolithic hominins and settlement in Croatia from MIS 6 to MIS 3: Research history and current interpretations|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320382399|website=ResearchGate}}{{Cite journal|last1=Simek|first1=Jan F.|last2=Smith|first2=Fred H.|date=1997-06-01|title=Chronological changes in stone tool assemblages from Krapina (Croatia)|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248496901293|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=32|issue=6|pages=561–575|doi=10.1006/jhev.1996.0129|pmid=9210018|issn=0047-2484}}{{Cite journal|last1=Ahern|first1=James C. M|last2=Karavanić|first2=Ivor|last3=Paunović|first3=Maja|last4=Janković|first4=Ivor|last5=Smith|first5=Fred H|date=2004-01-01|title=New discoveries and interpretations of hominid fossils and artifacts from Vindija Cave, Croatia|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248403001581|journal=Journal of Human Evolution|language=en|volume=46|issue=1|pages=27–67|doi=10.1016/j.jhevol.2003.09.010|pmid=14698684|issn=0047-2484}}{{Cite web|title=The Mousterian industry of Veternica Cave|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337978044|website=ResearchGate}} Mousterian industry sites on Istrian peninsula are Romualdova pećina and an open-air site at Campanož.{{Cite book|last1=Harvati|first1=Katerina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7fzDQAAQBAJ|title=Paleoanthropology of the Balkans and Anatolia: Human Evolution and its Context|last2=Roksandic|first2=Mirjana|date=2017-01-18|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-94-024-0874-4|language=en}} 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.{{Cite journal|last1=Boschian|first1=Giovanni|last2=Gerometta|first2=Katarina|last3=Ellwood|first3=Brooks B.|last4=Karavanić|first4=Ivor|date=2017-09-02|title=Late Neandertals in Dalmatia: Site formation processes, chronology, climate change and human activity at Mujina Pećina, Croatia|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618216301859|journal=Quaternary International|series=Prehistoric hunter-gatherers and farmers in the Adriatic and neighboring regions|language=en|volume=450|pages=12–35|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2016.09.066|bibcode=2017QuInt.450...12B|issn=1040-6182|hdl=11568/850037|hdl-access=free}} 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.{{Cite web|title=Kasni musterijen na istočnom Jadranu – temelj za razumijevanje identiteta kasnih neandertalaca i njihovog nestanka|url=http://www.ffzg.unizg.hr/mnij/?lang=en|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-17}}{{Cite web|title=Karavanić, Ivor & Janković, Ivor & Ahern, Jim & Smith, F.. (2014). Current research on the Middle Paleolithic cave, open-air and underwater site in Dalmatia, Croatia. Dolní Věstonice Studies. 20. 31-36.|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274073275|website=ResearchGate}}{{Citation|last=Karavanić|first=Ivor|title=Research on underwater Mousterian: The site of Resnik – Kaštel Štafilić, Dalmatia, Croatia.|date=2015|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287643498|work=In book: Forgotten times and spaces: New perspectives in paleoanthropological, paleoetnological and archeological studies.|pages=73–79|editor-last=Sázelová|editor-first=Sandra|publisher=Masaryk university|language=en|doi=10.5817/CZ.MUNI.M210-7781-2015-6|isbn=978-80-210-7781-2|access-date=2020-05-18|editor2-last=Novák|editor2-first=Martin|editor3-last=Mizerová|editor3-first=Alena}} 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.{{Citation|last1=Rossi|first1=Irena Radić|title=Croatia: Submerged Prehistoric Sites in a Karstic Landscape|date=2020|work=The Archaeology of Europe’s Drowned Landscapes|pages=347–369|editor-last=Bailey|editor-first=Geoff|series=Coastal Research Library|publisher=Springer International Publishing|language=en|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-37367-2_18|isbn=978-3-030-37367-2|last2=Karavanić|first2=Ivor|last3=Butorac|first3=Valerija|editor2-last=Galanidou|editor2-first=Nena|editor3-last=Peeters|editor3-first=Hans|editor4-last=Jöns|editor4-first=Hauke|doi-access=free}} 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.

File:Stone Scrapers for Cleaning & Working Leather, Mousterian Culture, Israel, 250,000-50,000.jpg|Stone scrapers for cleaning and working leather, Mousterian Culture, Israel, 250,000-50,000 BP

File:Le Moustier skull in Berlin reconstitution.jpg|Le Moustier Neanderthal skull reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin{{cite web |last1=Bekker |first1=Henk |title=Neues Museum in Berlin 1175 |url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/henkbekker/38668688366/in/album-72157690275139525/ |date=23 October 2017}}

File:Pointe levallois Beuzeville MHNT PRE.2009.0.203.2.jpg|Levallois points

File: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.jpg|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

File:Mousterian & Aurignacian Cultures, Stone Burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel (detail).jpg|Mousterian & Aurignacian Cultures, Stone Burins used for incising stone and wood, Qafzeh, Hayonim, el-Wad Cave, 250,000-22,000 BP Israel

File:Mousterian Culture Stone Spearheads 250,000-50,000 Israel (detail).jpg|Mousterian Culture, stone spearheads, 250,000-50,000. Israel Museum

{{Paleolithic|middle}}

• Neanderthal extinction hypotheses
• Levallois technique

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Mousterian}}

• {{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/science/14neanderthal.html?ex=1315800000&en=ca90a9bfe57071f2&ei=5089 |title=Neanderthals' Last Stand Is Traced |work=The New York Times |date=13 September 2006}}

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{{succession box|title=Mousterian|before=Micoquien|after=Châtelperronian|years=600,000—40,000 BP}}

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{{Prehistoric technology|tools|state=expanded}}

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Category:Archaeological cultures of Africa

Category:Archaeological cultures of Asia

Category:Archaeological cultures of Europe

Category:Paleolithic cultures of Europe

Category:Middle Paleolithic

Category:Neanderthals

Category:Industries (archaeology)