Mousterian

Mousterian
Geographical distribution of Mousterian sites
Geographical range Afro-Eurasia
Period Middle Paleolithic
Dates circa 300,000 B.C.E. — circa 30,000 B.C.E.
Type site Le Moustier
Preceded by Clactonian
Followed by Châtelperronian, Emirian culture, Aterian
A reconstruction of the head of the Shanidar 1 fossil, a Homo neanderthalensis male who lived circa 70,000 B.C.E. discovered in the mid-20th century at the Shanidar Cave
According to the Toba catastrophe theory, the global human population sharply decreased to 3,000–10,000 surviving individuals circa 70,000 B.C.E.[1][2]
Levallois points
The making of a Levallois Point
The Levallois technique of flint-knapping

Mousterian is a name given by archaeologists to a style of predominantly flint tools (or industry) associated primarily with Homo neanderthalensis and dating to the Middle Paleolithic, the middle part of the Old Stone Age.

Naming

The culture was named after the type site of Le Moustier, a rock shelter in the Dordogne region of France.[3] 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.[4]

Characteristics

Restoration of Le Moustier Neanderthals by Charles R. Knight

Mousterian tools that have been found in Europe were made by Neanderthals and date from between 600,000 BP and 40,000 BP[5] Some assemblages, namely those from Pech de l’Aze, are exceptionally small Levallois and other prepared core types, causing some researchers to suggest that these flakes take advantage of greater grip strength possessed by Neanderthal physiology.[6] In Northern Africa and the Near East they were also produced by anatomically modern humans. In the Levant for example, assemblages produced by Neanderthals are indistinguishable from those produced by Qafzeh type modern humans.[7] It may be an example of acculturation of modern humans by Neanderthals because the culture after 130,000 years reached the Levant from Europe (the first Mousterian industry appears there 200,000 BP) and the modern Qafzeh type humans appear in the Levant another 100,000 years later.

Possible variants are Denticulate, Charentian (Ferrassie & Quina) named after the Charente region,[8] Typical and the Acheulean Tradition (MTA) - Type-A and Type-B.[9] The Industry continued alongside the new Châtelperronian industry during the 45,000-40,000 BP period.[10]

Proximal Phalanges
Dorsal and ventral sides of a Mousterian denticulate

Locations

Range of Homo neanderthalensis

See also

The Paleolithic

↑ Pliocene (before Homo)

Lower Paleolithic (c. 2.6 Ma–300 ka)

Oldowan (2.6–1.8 Ma)
Riwat (1.9– 0.045 Ma)
Acheulean (1.7–0.1 Ma)
Soanian (5.0–1.2 Ma)
Clactonian (0.3–0.2 Ma)

Middle Paleolithic (300–45 ka)

Mousterian (300–40 ka)
Micoquien (130-60 ka)
Aterian (82 ka)

Upper Paleolithic (40–10 ka)

Baradostian (36 ka)
Châtelperronian (41-38 ka)
Aurignacian (38–29 ka)
Gravettian (29–22 ka)
Solutrean (22–18 ka)
Magdalenian (18–10 ka)
Hamburg (15 ka)
Federmesser (14-12 ka)
Ahrensburg (13-11 ka)
Swiderian (11 ka)
↓ Mesolithic
↓ Stone Age

References

  1. ↑ Ambrose 1998; Rampino & Ambrose 2000, pp. 71, 80.
  2. ↑ "Science & Nature - Horizon - Supervolcanoes". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved 2015-03-28.
  3. ↑ William A. Haviland; Harald E. L. Prins; Dana Walrath; Bunny McBride (24 February 2009). The Essence of Anthropology. Cengage Learning. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-495-59981-4. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  4. ↑ Mark Aldenderfer; Alfred J. Andrea; Kevin McGeough; William E. Mierse, Carolyn Neel (29 April 2010). World History Encyclopedia. Abc-Clio. p. 330. ISBN 978-1-85109-929-0. Retrieved 23 November 2011.
  5. ↑ http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-bone-technique-redrafts-prehistory-1.15739
  6. ↑ Dibble, Harold L.; McPherron, Shannon P. (October 2006). "The Missing Mousterian". Current Anthropology 47 (5): 777–803. doi:10.1086/506282.
  7. ↑ Shea, J. J., 2003: Neandertals [sic], competition and the origin of modern human behaviour in the Levant, Evolutionary Anthropology, 12:173-187.
  8. ↑ Andrew Lock, Charles R. Peters - Handbook of human symbolic evolution - 906 pages Oxford science publications Wiley-Blackwell, 1999 ISBN 0-631-21690-1 RETRIEVED 2012-01-06
  9. ↑ University of Oslo P.O. Box 1072 - Blindern-0316 Oslo-Norway email : fa-admin@admin.uio.no. / international@mn.uio.no - Universitetet i Oslo. Retrieved 2012-01-06
  10. ↑ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v512/n7514/full/nature13621.html
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Langer, William L., ed. (1972). An Encyclopedia of World History (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 9. ISBN 0-395-13592-3.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mousterian.
Preceded by
Micoquien		 Mousterian
300,000–30,000 BP 		Succeeded by
Châtelperronian