Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and ArtOsborn, Henry Fairfield
History
Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art
Osborn, Henry Fairfield
Art, Primitive; Prehistoric peoples; Stone age
1. An early Mousterian, with quite numerous lance-shaped coups de
poing, lies at the base of the 'newer loess,' showing that the
coup-de-poing tradition still lingers and the coup-de-poing type is
still preserved. With these are associated the new types of implements
and especially the 'hand-points,' which are so typical of the
Mousterian industry.
The more recent levels (2, 3) contain longer flakes, which already
exhibit a tendency toward the blades, or 'lames,' of the Upper
Palæolithic.
In the shelters and caverns of Dordogne the same industrial sequence may
be observed, although the chronological succession of the strata is not
always clearly defined. At the grotto of Combe-Capelle the heart-shaped
coups de poing retain most strongly the old traditions, but even here
these are outnumbered by the well-fashioned Mousterian 'points,' chipped
only on one side.
The further development of the Mousterian industry may be observed in the
type station of Le Moustier, where the lower levels show a primitive
Mousterian consisting mostly of very fine, irregularly fashioned flakes,
made into small scrapers, triangular points, borers, and disks. The
overlying layer includes very carefully worked Mousterian points which are
frequently retouched on one side over the entire surface; here the
Mousterian technique reaches its highest development, so that Schmidt
designates it as 'high Mousterian.'(75) Above this layer, again, is a
level of typical late Mousterian forms, quite unlike the small primitive
flakes of the lower level and resembling the characteristic forms of La
Quina, the dominant type being the finely shaped La Quina racloir. The few
diminutive coups de poing which occur in this level at Le Moustier furnish
the only distinction between the industry here and that of La Quina, where
no coups de poing are found. At Le Moustier also occur the typical bone
anvils which were first recognized at La Quina.
The Mousterian industry of the Neanderthals was thus devoted mainly to the
development of the smaller forms of implements, for the most part
retouched on one side only, and with a constant improvement of technique.
Yet the chief types of Mousterian implements remain the same as in
Acheulean times, as shown in the accompanying table.
The implement known as the _pointe_, or the 'hand-point,' is a principal
and very characteristic Mousterian form further perfected from its
Acheulean stage. It is spear-headed in shape and chipped on one side only,
and continues into late Mousterian times, being still found in the
Mousterian levels of Spy, in Belgium.
The _pointe double_, a double-pointed, spear-shaped form, at times almost
attains the elongate shape of the Solutrean _pointe de laurier_, though
never its slenderness, symmetry, and perfection of technique.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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