Mousterian

The Mousterian is a Middle Paleolithic stone-tool industry known especially from Europe and western Asia. It is defined by diverse flake tools, often made using prepared-core techniques, and is commonly associated with Neanderthals.

Middle Paleolithic: A prehistoric period between the Lower and Upper Paleolithic, defined by regional archaeological sequences. The Mousterian is one of the major stone-tool industries assigned to this period.
Prepared-core technique: A knapping approach that prepares a core before removing flakes intended to have predictable shapes. Prepared cores help explain the technical organization behind many Mousterian flakes.
Gabriel de Mortillet: A nineteenth-century French archaeologist who developed influential classifications of prehistoric stone-tool industries. He established the Mousterian name from the site of Le Moustier.
Neanderthals: An extinct human species that lived across Europe and parts of western and central Asia. Many Mousterian assemblages occur at Neanderthal sites, though the association is not exclusive.
Kebara Cave: A cave site on Mount Carmel in Israel with Neanderthal and early modern human remains and Middle Paleolithic deposits. Its stratified finds provide a western Asian case for Mousterian technologies and changing populations.
Levallois technique: A prepared-core method that shapes a stone nucleus to produce flakes of predetermined form. Many Mousterian assemblages include flakes produced by prepared-core reduction.
Stone knapping: The deliberate striking of stone to remove flakes and shape tools or cores. Mousterian production depended on controlled knapping rather than one fixed tool design.
Le Moustier: A prehistoric rock shelter in southwestern France that gave the Mousterian its name. Its archaeological deposits became the type reference behind the industry's label.
Homo sapiens: The living human species, which originated in Africa and later spread across the world. Some Mousterian-like industries have been associated with early modern humans in western Asia.
La Ferrassie: A rock-shelter site in southwestern France known for Neanderthal remains and Middle Paleolithic deposits. Its archaeological record links Mousterian assemblages to well-known Neanderthal burials and fossils.

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