The Mousterian industry is the name archaeologists have given to an ancient Middle Stone Age method of making stone tools. The Mousterian is associated with our hominid relatives the Neanderthals in Europe and both Early Modern Human and Neanderthals in Africa.
Part of the Mousterian assemblage is made up of Levallois tools such as points and cores.
These stone tools were in use between about 200,000 years ago, until 30,000 years ago, after the Acheulean industry, and about the same time as the Fauresmith tradition in South Africa.
Mousterian Sites
Levant
- Qafzeh Cave, Israel
- Skhul Cave, Israel
- Kebara Cave, Israel
- Hayonim Cave , Israel
North Africa
- Rhafas Cave, Morocco
- Dar es Soltan, Morocco
Central Asia
- Kalatepe Deresi, Turkey
- Darra-i-Kur, Afghanistan
Europe
- Gorhams Cave, Gibraltar
- Abric Romani, France
- L'Arbreda Cave, Spain
- St. Cesaire, France
- Denisova Cave, Siberia
- Moldova Sites, Ukraine
- Vindija Cave, Croatia
Selected Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Middle Paleolithic, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Bar-Yosef, Ofer 1998 On the nature of transitions: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic and the Neolithic revolution. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 8(2):141-163.
Binford, Lewis R. and Sally R. Binford 1966 A preliminary analysis of functional variability in the Mousterian of Levallois facies. American Anthropologist 68:238-295.
Bordes, Francois and Denise de Sonneville-Bordes 1970 The significance of variability in paleolithic assemblages. World Archaeology 2(1):61-73.
Dibble, Harold L. 1991 Mousterian assemblage variability on an interregional scale. Journal of Anthropological Research 47(2):239-258.
