Mousterian industry, tool culture traditionally associated with Neanderthal man in Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa during the early Fourth (Würm) Glacial Period (c. 40,000 bc). The Mousterian tool assemblage shows flaking techniques in common with the Clactonian, as well as the frequent practice in some assemblages of the Levallois flaking technique. Tools included small hand axes made from disk-shaped cores; flake tools, such as well-made sidescrapers and triangular points, probably used as knives; denticulate (toothed) instruments produced by making notches in a flake, perhaps used as saws or shaft straighteners; and round limestone balls, believed to have served as