Mousterian

The culture was named after the type site of Le Moustier, three superimposed rock shelters in the Dordogne region of France.^[3] Similar flintwork has been found all over unglaciated Europe as well as West Asia and North Africa. Hand axes, racloirs, and points constitute the industry; sometimes a Levallois technique or another prepared-core technique was employed in making the flint flakes.^[4]

Le Moustier remains

Le Moustier 1 Neanderthal skull, today in the Neues Museum, Berlin.^[5]

Mousterian point

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]

Sites with significant Neanderthal and Mousterian finds in northwestern Croatia are Krapina, Vindija, Velika pećina and Veternica.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} Mousterian industry sites on Istrian peninsula are Romualdova pećina and an open-air site at Campanož.^[17] 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.^[18] 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.^[19][20][21] 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.^[22] 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.^[21]

• Haua Fteah in Cyrenaica and other sites in northwest Africa^[23]
• Within a cave in the Syria region, along with a Neanderthaloid skeleton^[23]
• Haibak valley of Afghanistan^[23]
• Zagros and Central Iran
• Atapuerca, Spain
• Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar
• Teshik-Tash site, Uzbekistan^[23]
• Turkmenistan^[23]
• Denisova Cave, Siberia^[23]
• Israel, along with remains of both Neandertals and Homo sapiens sapiens^[24]
• Lynford Quarry, Norfolk, England
• Azykh Cave, Azerbaijan^[25][26]
• Montgaudier Cave, France

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  Stone scrapers for cleaning and working leather, Mousterian Culture, Israel, 250,000-50,000 BP
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  Le Moustier Neanderthal skull reconstitution, Neues Museum Berlin^[27]
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  Levallois points
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  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
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  Mousterian and Aurignacian stone burins for incising stone and wood, from the caves of Qafzeh, HaYonim, and El Wad (250,000–22,000 BP). Israel Museum
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  Mousterian stone spearheads from the Daughters of Jacob Bridge and the caves of Tabun, Kebara, and Amud (250,000–50,000 BP). Israel Museum.