334 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 83 



Evidently, in food and food habits, as in housing, Mousterian man 

 was quite like both the Acheulian man that preceded him, and the 

 Homo sapiens that followed. 



Tools. — The bulk of the Mousterian period is characterized by a 

 definite phase of stone industry, but so are all the periods before and 

 after it. It has no sudden beginning. It uses flint where this can 

 be had, as do all the other industries ; where flint is absent or scarce, 

 it employs quartzite and other stones. The use of bone begins in the 

 Mousterian, to increase henceforward. The period shows three stages 

 of cultural evolution, the lower, middle, and upper, as do also later 

 the Aurignacian and the Magdalenian periods. The implements range 

 from crude to beautifully made (as at La Ferrassie, La Quina, 

 Le Moustier, Jersey, Sergeac) ; the technique is partly different from, 

 but in general not inferior to, either the late Acheulian or the earlier 

 Aurignacian ; and there are indications that there was no general 

 sudden ending of the culture. 



On the whole the Mousterian industry, though characteristic, does 

 not provide evidence of anything wholly new and strange, intercalated 

 between the Acheulian and the Aurignacian, beginning abruptly by 

 displacing the former or ending suddenly through displacement by 

 the latter. There is much in fact at either end that appears to be, 

 more or less, of a transitional nature. 



Thus, even in H. F. Osborn's opinion (Obermaier, 1924, p. x), the 

 Mousterian *' constitutes a further evolution of the two earlier 

 cultures " — the Chellean and the Acheulian. At Ehringsdorf , in the 

 lower travertine, " the technique of the chipping is Acheulian, but 

 the forms are largely Mousterian" (MacCurdy, Human Origins, 

 1924, vol. 2, p. 392). According to Burkitt (Prehistory, 1921, p. 27), 

 " . . . . workers in Dordogne find a great dif^culty in distinguishing 

 between Upper Acheulian beds and Lower Mousterian beds. In fact, 

 M. Peyrony often only solves the problem by the absence or presence 

 of reindeer." And quotations of similar import could be multiplied. 

 As to the upper limits — at the Cotte de Ste. Brelade, Jersey, excavated 

 by Nicolle, Sinel, and Marett, the upper (fifth) layer gave graceful 

 implements " that may be either upper Mousterian or Aurignacian " 

 (Burkitt). At Le Moustier, the type-station of the Mousterian in- 

 dustry, the upper rock-shelter showed eight layers, " the top one 

 being Aurignacian, the second transitional (Audi), and the rest 

 Mousterian, except the seventh which was sterile." The lower rock- 

 shelter was even more instructive. The section from top to base was : 

 6. Lower Aurignacian; 5. Transitional (Audi); 4. Typical Mous- 



