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ENTRY #11

50,000-30,000, Mousterian Age

INTRODUCTORY CITATIONS

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1,000,000-10,000, Paleolithic Overview.

The Late Paleolithic Age is

sub-divided into five BCE periods:

Mousterian Age, 50,000 – 30,000

Aurignacian Age, 30,000 – 25,000

Gravettian Age, 25,000 – 20,000

Solutrean Age, 20,000 – 15,000

Magdalenian Age, 15,000 – 10,000.

(RGS.)

ENTRY NARRATIVE

The Mousterian Age, also known as Levalloisian – Mousterian, is so named

because of the Mousterian type of flint tool implements that prevailed throughout

the glaciated areas. These implements were handcrafted flint work consisting of

triangular points that were struck from the core of a flint. They were used for

hunting mammoth, bear, reindeer and rhinoceros as well as dressing skins. These

ancient tools were consistent in form and considered to be the prototype to the

later blade cultures of the Upper Paleolithic. Additional finds include fragments of

bone and stone that were incised with lines. Numerous interpretations suggest that

these notches were notations of lunar cycles.  (TROC; CAH: Vol. 1, Part 1; PDA; CEOA;

MG: 683.) *

 

* Ancient Stone Tool Update, 2015.

 

Ancient stone tools have been discovered at Lomekwi 3 in West Turkana,

Kenya. They were made 3.3 million years ago, predating the earliest sils

of the first member of the human genus – Homo habilis – by about

500,000 years. ‘The cores and flakes are clearly knapped,’ says team

member Sonia Harmand of Stony Brook University, but they are also very

different from the Oldowan examples that were previously the earliest

stone tools’  (TFT: 12).

IMAGE REFERENCES

 IMAGE: AURIGNACIAN VULVA IN STONE: LA FERRASSIE, FRANCE.

PHOTO: © GSA. DESCRIPTION: INCISED AURIGNACIAN VULVA IN STONE, LA

FERRASSIE, FRANCE.

SLIDE LOCATION NEO. PAL. FRANCE, SHEET 2, ROW 4, SLEEVE 3, SLIDE #18, c.

34,000- 28,000 BCE.

CU_NPF_S2_R4_SL3_S18.jpg

SHOT ON LOCATION: THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY: NEW YORK, NY.

NOTE 1: FIELDWORK PROJECT 1993.

PHOTO NOTE: FOR AURIGNACIAN VULVA PHOTO RESEARCH, SEE THE NEW

NATURAL MUSEUM OF PREHISTORY LES EYZIES IN THE VILLAGE OF LES EYZIES,

FRANCE, DISTINGUISHED AS ONE THE FINEST ICE AGE AND MAGDALENIAN

COLLECTIONS IN THE WORLD.

IMAGE: AURIGNACIAN VULVA FROM THE VALLEY OF VÉZÈRE: DORDOGNE,

FRANCE.

PHOTO: © GSA. DESCRIPTION: AURIGNACIAN INCISED VULVA IN STONE FROM

CAVES IN THE VALLEY OF VÉZÈRE, DORDOGNE, FRANCE.

SLIDE LOCATION NEO. PAL. FRANCE, SHEET 2, ROW 4, SLEEVE 4, SLIDE #19, c. 30,000

BCE.

CU_NPF_S2_R4_SL4_S19.jpeg

SHOT ON LOCATION: HAUTE GARGONNE, FRANCE: MUSÉE DES ANTIQUITÉS

NATIONALES. (SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE, FRANCE IS JUST OUTSIDE OF PARIS.)

NOTE 1: FIELDWORK PROJECT 1982-1989.

PHOTO NOTE: SEE THE NEW NATURAL MUSEUM OF PREHISTORY LES EYZIES IN

THE VILLAGE OF LES EYZIES, FRANCE, DISTINGUISHED AS ONE THE FINEST ICE

AGE AND MAGDALENIAN COLLECTIONS IN THE WORLD.

ENTRY 11 GODDESS SITES AND ARTIFACT IMAGE COLLECTIONS

Placholder_0001

Placholder_0001

Placholder_0001

Placholder_0001

GSA TEXT REFERENCES

IMAGE: SAMPLE TEXT

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