Mousterian Point
Knife and projectile point
Mousterian
300 000 to 45 000 years
These points are not, as thought by some, weapons: they are simple tools.
G. de Mortillet, Le préhistorique. Antiquité de l’homme. C. Reinwald, Paris. 1883
Commentary :
A Mousterian point is made by shaping a thin, rectilinear flake.
The effeciency of this tools lies in the combination of its cutting and piercing properties.
This point can function both as a butchery tool and, for the most pointed ones, as a projectile point
The appearance of Mousterian points on Levallois flakes during the Middle Palaeolithic, between 150 000 and 50 000 years ago, shows the Neanderthals to have specialised and enlarged their cutting tools in tandem with the diversification of their activities.