Two instruments are especially typical of the Mousterian industry from beginning to end; these are the 'pointe' and the 'racloir.' The former, pointed and spear-shaped, is from 1 to 4 inches in length; the latter is a broad scraper, from 1 to 2 inches in width; and both have the distinctive peculiarity of being composed of a large flake of flint struck off from a larger bulb or nodule and of being retouched only on one side, leaving on the opposite side the smooth conchoidal surface of the flake.[(72)] This point and scraper are highly characteristic not only of the early stages but of the Mousterian industry throughout its entire course, including even the late La Quina types, and their manner of making is obviously a modified usage of the late Acheulean discovery of the flakes of Levallois.
Fig. 128. Typical Mousterian 'points' from the type station of Le Moustier, made of a large flake of flint struck off from the nodule and retouched on only one side, leaving on the opposite side a smooth, conchoidal surface. After Déchelette, by permission of M. A. Picard, Librairie Alphonse Picard et Fils.
A matter of the greatest interest in the industrial development of western Europe at this time is the fact that this discovery of the utilization of the flake, whether in the 'lames de Levallois' or in the Mousterian point and scraper, led to the decline of the coup de poing. The retouched flakes of various shapes were easier to make and to repair and served equally well the purposes of skinning and dismembering game which had been previously served by the ancient coup de poing.[(73)]
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Fig. 129. Mousterian 'points' and scrapers from various parts of Europe, as interpreted by de Mortillet. In some cases both sides of the implement are shown; all are one-quarter actual size except 101, which is one-half actual size. 100—De Mortillet's theory of the manner of using the Mousterian 'point,' which was held in the hand and not shafted. 101—Mousterian point from Suffolk, England. 102—Mousterian point from Umbria, Italy. 103, 104—A single flake point from the Crimea, in southern Russia. 105, 106—A long, narrow Mousterian point from Oise, France. 107—A curved-in scraper, or grattoir, from Dordogne, France; perhaps an implement for dressing a wooden spear or lance. 108—Bone splinter, broken for the marrow, but not shaped.
In consequence, the coup de poing, fashioned from the core of the nodule, begins to play a very secondary rôle and occurs but rarely in the Mousterian levels. Even at St. Acheul, the very centre of its former reign, we begin to find decadent forms and poor workmanship, which make it difficult to recognize that these are the successors of the finely retouched Acheulean coups de poing. While the coups de poing at the type station of Le Moustier continue to retain the old Acheulean patterns—the oval, the heart-shaped, the sharp-pointed—they are all of smaller size and rather coarsely retouched. Thus, after thousands of years of development and employment, the coup de poing falls into a period of degeneration and of final disuse. The history of this. implement, which we have traced from its Pre-Chellean prototypes, presents a most interesting analogy with the course of evolution observed in so many animal and plant forms. It passes through many stages of improvement and reaches a climax of perfection and adaptation; it then comes into competition with another form evolving on a fundamentally different and superior plan and disappears in the struggle for existence through the greater usefulness of the replacing type.
Successive Stages in the Mousterian Industry
The succession of industrial stages is best shown along the Vézère. The oldest Mousterian industry is that of Combe-Capelle with its heart-shaped, roughly fashioned coups de poing, entirely lacking, however, any evidence of a surface prepared for the grasp of the hand.