The European Mousterian is the product ofNeanderthals. It existed roughly from 160,000 to 40,000BP.[6]
Some assemblages, namely those from Pech de l'Aze, include exceptionally small points prepared using theLevallois 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 byanatomically modern humans. In theEastern Mediterranean, for example, assemblages produced by Neanderthals are indistinguishable from those made byQafzeh 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 theCharente region,[9] Typical, and the Mousterian Traditional Acheulian (MTA) Type-A and Type-B.[10] The industry continued alongside the newChâtelperronian industry during the 45,000–40,000BP period.[11]
The archaeological cave site ofAzykh contains Mousterian relics in the overlying strata. In this cave, a lower jaw of a hominid namedAzykhantrop 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 inCroatia areKrapina,Vindija,Velika pećina andVeternica, located in the north-western part of Croatia and the region ofHrvatsko zagorje.[16][17][18][19][20] Mousterian industry sites onIstrian peninsula areRomualdova pećina and an open-air site at Campanož.[21] Sites on theAdriatic coast and its hinterland areMujina 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 ofchert andLevallois method artifacts.[23][24][25] Other underwater Paleolithic finds are a single Mousterian tool offshore ofPovljana on theisland of Pag and stone tools of possible Mousterian type at a depth of 3 m at Stipanac inLake Prokljan.[26] In the area north of the town ofZadar an extensive series of sites exist where usually smallMicro-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
^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.
^Shaw, Ian; Jameson, Robert, eds. (1999).A Dictionary of Archaeology. Blackwell. p. 408.ISBN0-631-17423-0. Retrieved1 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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![Le Moustier Neanderthal skull reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin[27]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aLe_Moustier_skull_in_Berlin_reconstitution.jpg)
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