Middle Paleolithic Era Essay

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The Middle Paleolithic Era is an era dominated by flake tools and complex stone making techniques. The Middle Paleolithic Era is showcased by Neanderthals and the dominant tool industry that arose known as the Mousterian Tradition (Quinlan). The Mousterian Tradition was named after a site in France called Le Moustier (O’Neil). There are a lot of similarities between the Acheulean Tool Tradition and the Mousterian Tradition. One similarity is, the tools in the Mousterian Tradition were developed and based from the Acheulean tradition (Quinlan). The key difference between tools in the Mousterian Tradition and other traditions, is that there was an emphasis on flake tools rather than large core tools (“Stone Tools”). The Mousterian Tradition first began in western Europe and then expanded to the Middle East and into Africa (“Exploring The Fossil Records Stone Tools”). In the Middle Paleolithic Era, their was one important technique that was used and it is known as the Levallois technique (Michaels and Smith). This complex technique …show more content…

Just like the Perigordian and Aurignacian cultures the typical tools that were used in the Solutrean culture are burins, blade tools, end scrapers (Aggarwal). The Solutrean culture is known for having excellent crafted flint tools (Aggarwal). In the Solutrean culture the typical tools were thin and beautifully crafted laurel-leaf pointed tools, which resemble a leaf (O’Neil). As craftsmanship kept increasing shoulder point tools started to evolve (Aggarwal). Shoulder point tools resemble the laurel-leaf pointed tools, but the difference is one side of the shoulder point tool is restricted (Aggarwal). Laurel-leaf pointed tools and shoulder point tool could have been used in an immeasurable amount of ways. In order to have successful tools in the Solutrean culture, the person creating the tool has to master the pressure flaking

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