WHAT IS THE MOUSTERIAN?

A Middle Paleolithic culture that is defined by the development of a wide variety of specialized tools made with prepared-core knapping techniques, such as spear points. It is named for the first such artifacts recovered from the lower rock shelter at Le Moustier, Dordogne, France. Stone tools, scrapers, and points found in the cave came to be recognized as the flint industry present throughout Europe during first half of the last glaciation (Würm) and associated with Neanderthal man. The earliest Mousterian goes back to the Riss glaciation, but most of it comes from the late/middle Würm glaciation, giving a total lifespan from 180,000 bc until c. 30,000 bce. Flintwork of Mousterian type (with racloirs, triangular points made on flakes, and – in some variants – well-made hand axes) has been found over most of the unglaciated parts of Eurasia, as well as in the Near East and North Africa (in the latter two areas, it constitutes the Middle Paleolithic). Three major regional variants have been identified – West, East, and Levalloiso-Mousterian, each with subgroups. In certain industries, called Levalloiso-Mousterian, the tools were made on flakes produced by the Levallois technique. It was a progressive stage in the manufacture of stone tools. Mousterian peoples mainly lived in cave mouths and rock shelters.

WHAT IS THE MIDDLE PALEOLITHIC?

The intermediate part of the Paleolithic period, from about 100,000 years ago to about 35,000 years ago. It was characterized by the development of a variety of stone tools and the first symbolic use of artifacts and sites. It ended with the extinction of the Neanderthals. The Middle Paleolithic is equivalent to the Middle Stone Age in sub-Saharan Africa. The Middle Paleolithic comprises the Mousterian, a portion of the Levalloisian, and the Tayacian, all of which are complexes based on the production of flakes, although the hand-ax tradition survived in many instances. Middle Paleolithic assemblages first appear in deposits of the third interglacial and persisted during the first major oscillation of the fourth glacial (Würm) stage. Associated with the Tayacian, in which the artifacts consist of very crude flakes, remains of modern man (Homo sapiens) have been found. Mousterian man, on the other hand, is of the Neanderthal race. It is in the Mousterian levels of the caves and rock shelters of central and southern France that the earliest evidence of the use of fire and the first definite burials have been discovered in western Europe. The artifacts consist of: (1) the prepared striking platform, “tortoise” core (Levalloisian) tradition; (2) the plain striking platform, discoidal core technique of the Clactonian tradition; and (3) a persistence of the bifacial core tool, or Acheulean tradition.

WHAT IS THE MICOQUIAN?

Final Acheulian phase defined on the basis of assemblages from La Micoque, near Les Eyzies, France. Sites are found in central Europe, including some in the former Soviet Union. The characteristic artifact is a pointed pyriform (pear shaped) or lanceolate (tapering) biface with a well-made tip.

WHAT IS THE MESOLITHIC?

A time period in human history beginning with the retreat of glacial ice c. 8500 bc and the changing climatic conditions following it; a development in northwestern Europe that lasted until about 2700 bc. This Middle Stone Age followed the Upper Paleolithic and preceded the Neolithic. It was a period of transition in the Early Holocene between the hunter-gatherer existence and the development of farming and pottery production. Glacial flora and fauna were replaced by modern forms and the flint industries are often distinguished by an abundance of microliths. The equipment was designed for fishing and fowling as well as hunting and often included many tiny flints, or microliths, that were set in wooden shafts and hafts, and stone axes or adzes used for woodworking. Forests grew in Europe and people modified their lives accordingly. In the Near East, which remained free of ice sheets, climatic change was less significant than in northern Europe and agriculture was practiced soon after the close of the Pleistocene. In this area the Mesolithic period was short and poorly differentiated. In Britain the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition did not come until around 4000 bc. The dog was domesticated during the Mesolithic. The term is used widely only in European prehistory.

WHAT IS THE MAGDALENIAN?

The final major European culture of the Upper Paleolithic period, from about 15,000 to 10,000 years ago; characterized by composite or specialized tools, tailored clothing, and, especially, geometric and representational cave art (e.g., Altamira) and for beautiful decorative work in bone and ivory (mobiliary art). The people were chiefly fishermen and reindeer hunters; they were the first known people to have used a spear thrower (of reindeer bone and antler) to increase range, strength, and accuracy. Magdalenian stone tools include small geometrically shaped implements (e.g., triangles, semilunar blades) probably set into bone or antler handles for use, burins (a sort of chisel), scrapers, borers, backed bladelets, and shouldered and leaf-shaped projectile points. Bone was used extensively to make wedges, adzes, hammers, spearheads with link shafts, barbed points and harpoons, eyed needles, jewelry, and hooked rods (probably used as spear throwers). They killed animals with spears, snares, and traps and lived in caves, rock shelters, or substantial dwellings in winter and in tents in summer. The name is derived from La Madeleine or Magdalene, the type site in the Dordogne of southwest France. The culture’s center of origin was southwest France and the adjacent parts of Spain, but elements characteristic of the later stages are represented in Britain (Creswell Crags), and eastwards to southwest Germany and Poland. The Magdalenian culture, like that of earlier Upper Paleolithic communities, was adapted to the cold conditions of the last (Würm) glaciation. The Magdalenian has been divided into six phases; it followed the Solutrean industry and was succeeded by the simplified Azilian. Magdalenian culture disappeared as the cool, near-glacial climate warmed at the end of the fourth (Würm) glacial period (c. 10,000 bc), and herd animals became scarce.

WHAT IS THE LUPEMBAN?

A stone industry of the Lower Paleolithic of west-central Africa, developed from a Sangoan predecessor and characterized by tools appropriate for rough woodwork. Lupemban industry has been found in northern Angola and southern Zaire and an important dated site is at Kalambo Falls on the Zambia–Tanzania border. In contrast with the Sangoan, Lupemban assemblages are marked by the fine quality of their bifacial stoneworking technique on elongated double-ended points, large side scrapers, and thick core-axes. The industry spans from before 30,000 bc until c. 15,000 bc. [Lupembian]

WHAT IS THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC?

The earliest part of the Paleolithic period, beginning about 2.5 million years ago and lasting to about 100,000 years ago. It was characterized by the first use of crude stone tools, the practice of hunting and gathering, and the development of social units, settlements, and structures. It was the era of the earliest forms of humans. The phases of the Paleolithic have been subdivided based on artifact typology; the Lower Paleolithic is the period of early hominid pebble tool and core tool manufacture. In China, the Early Paleolithic ran from 1,000,000 to 73,000 bc.

WHAT IS THE HELL GAP?

A Plano tradition complex of the Paleoindian period from c. 11,200 to 8000 bc (the complex dates to c. 10,000–9500 bp) and centered on a well-preserved, deeply stratified site in eastern Wyoming. Hell Gap is also the name of a projectile point type of the Plano tradition, which is bifacially worked with a broad pointed top set on a straight-sided trapezoidal body. The base is narrow and straight. Experiments show that these points were probably spearheads and fully capable of penetrating the hide and ribcage of large beasts such as bison.

WHAT IS THE HARPOON?

A spear-like missile with a detachable head, often consisting of a pointed shaft with backward-pointing barbs. It was often loosely hafted so that it would separate from its shaft after the point had struck its target. The appearance of this weapon is associated in particular with the Magdalenian culture, was particularly popular during the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic, and was used for hunting or fishing. An attached line was used to retrieve the catch. Some anthropologists refer to all barbed bone or antler points as harpoons.

WHAT IS THE GRAVETTIAN?

An Upper Paleolithic industry named after the site La Gravette in the Dordogne of southwest France and characterized by well-developed blade tools of flint and female figurines of ivory. This advanced industry succeeded the Aurignacian and preceded the Solutrean, c. 28,000–20,000 bp. In France it is known as the Upper Périgordian (Périgordian IV) and the Gravettian appears to have developed in central Europe, expanding to the east and west. The small, pointed blades with straight blunted backs are called Gravette points. Most of the French sites are caves, but related industries, known as Eastern Gravettian, are possibly distributed through the loess lands of central Europe and Russia at the camp sites of mammoth hunters; other sites are in Spain, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, and Italy. The Gravettians invented the bow and arrow, blunted-back knives of flint, and tanged arrowheads. They are famous, too, for their cave paintings. Other artifacts include bone or ivory spears and, in eastern Europe, numerous other bone tools incised with an elaborate geometric pattern.

WHAT IS THE DIRECT PERCUSSUION ?

DIRECT PERCUSSION: A technique used in the manufacture of chipped-stone artifacts in which flakes are produced by striking a core with another stone, a hammerstone, or by striking the core against a fixed stone or anvil in order to dislodge a flake. The method is less precise in its results than indirect percussion. [free-hand percussion]

WHAT IS THE CRESWELL POİNT ?

CRESWELL POİNT: Type of later Upper Paleolithic flint tool found in the British Isles made from a narrow flint blade, with one end worked to produce a slightly elongated trapezoidal form, with the long side of the blade left unworked, and the shorter side blunted.

WHAT IS THE CRESTED BLADE ?

CRESTED BLADE: A flint blade with negative impressions of removals on one side of the dorsal surface, creating a crest. These constitute part of a previously worked striking platform or result from preparing the  flaked surface on a core before detaching the flakes or blades.

WHAT IS THE CORTEX ?

CORTEX: A tough covering or crust on an unmodified stone cobble or newly exposed flint nodule and tabular flint. It is formed by weathering and is usually discarded during the knapping process.

WHAT IS THE CORE TOOL ?

CORE TOOL: A stone tool, such as a hand ax, chopper, or scraper, formed by chipping away flakes from a core. These tools, often large and relatively heavy, were characteristic of Paleolithic culture. They were made by using a pebble, antler, or bone hammer. [core-tool]

WHAT IS THE CORE REJUVENATION FLAKE ?

CORE REJUVENATION FLAKE: A roughly round and slightly wedge-shaped flake of flint with the remains of flake beds around the outside edge. These flakes are created to extend the life of a core that has become uneven or difficult to work. [core tablet]

WHAT IS THE CORE ?

CORE: 1. A piece of stone used as a blank from which flakes or blades were removed by prehistoric toolmakers. Usually it was the byproduct of toolmaking, but it may also have been shaped and modified to serve as an implement in its own right. An object, such as a hand ax, chopper, or scraper made in this way is a core tool. Cores were most often produced when hit by a pebble, antler, or bone hammer. [blank, nucleus] 2. A black or gray zone in the interior crosssection of a vessel wall, usually associated with incomplete removal of carbonaceous matter from the clay during relatively low-temperature firing; not to be confused with black coring at high temperatures, which results from trapped gases and may lead to bloating. [coring (n.)]

WHAT IS THE CORDILLERAN ?

CORDILLERAN: The ice mass that covered the coastal mountains along the Pacific Ocean coast of North America from northern Washington state into southern Alaska. At its maximum extent, about 20,000 years ago, it connected with the Laurentide ice sheet to the east and with the Pacific Ocean to the west, and reached a thickness of some 3 km (1 mile). The Cordilleran geosyncline was a linear trough in the Earth’s crust in which rocks of Late Precambrian to Mesozoic age (roughly 600 million to 66 million years ago) were deposited along the western coast of North America, from southern Alaska through western Canada and the United States, probably to western Mexico. The eastern boundary of the geosyncline extended from southeastern Alaska along the eastern edge of the northern Cordillera and northern Rocky Mountains of Canada and Montana, along the eastern edge of the Great Basin of Utah and Nevada, and into southeastern California and Mexico. The Old Cordilleran culture appeared in the Pacific Northwest about 9000 or 10,000 bc and persisted until about 5000 bc in some areas. Subsistence was based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. Simple willowleafshaped, bipointed projectile points are characteristic artifacts.

WHAT IS THE CONCHODIAL FRACTURE ?

CONCHODIAL FRACTURE: A characteristic shell-like fracture pattern that occurs in siliceous rocks, such as obsidian, chert, and flint. The fracture has smooth, shell-like convexities and concavities. [conchoidal]

WHAT IS THE CONCHOIDAL FLAKE ?

CONCHOIDAL FLAKE: A type of spall resulting from the fracture of fine-grained or glassy rocks. It is characterized by a bulb of percussion, striking platform remnant, and extremely sharp edges. There is a predictable fracture pattern that allows the manufacture of predetermined tools from these materials.