- Quina Mousterian
The
Middle Palaeolithic or the "Age of theNeanderthals ", is characterised by the occurrence of severalMiddle Palaeolithic cultures . One of the "lithic" or "stone" cultures is called "Quina Mousterian," one of severalmousterian variants. Quina Mousterian is usually dominated by transverse scrapers and typically has aLevallois index of less than 10%.Quina Mousterian lithic assemblages are usually found in caves. Very few Quina assemblages have been found outside cave and rock shelters. However, an important lithic assemblage, which was characterised by the presence of Quina tools and
Levallois core reduction has recently been excavated at the Middle Palaeolithic valley settlements atVeldwezelt-Hezerwater inBelgium . The researchers who have excavated the Quina assemblage at the so-called "WFL site" atVeldwezelt-Hezerwater prefer to call the WFL lithic assemblage: "Levallois core reduction with Quina tools."Quina Mousterian lithic assemblages in Southern
France mostly date to the EarlyWeichselian (70,000-60,000BP), while Quina Mousterian lithic assemblages inBelgium mostly date to the first half of the MiddleWeichselian (60,000-45,000).A typical Quina Mousterian lithic assemblage is found in
Axlor site, in the Basque Country (Spain), dated at the end of OIS3 (44,000 BP).External links
* The Middle Palaeolithic sites at [http://www.geocities.com/patrickbringmans/veldwezelt-hezerwater.html Veldwezelt-Hezerwater]
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