In Africa, the Mousterian industry was an archaeological term for a category of Middle Stone Age (or Middle Paleolithic) stone tool production. During the time that archaeological dates were determined by radiocarbon decay, the production of such tools was once thought to have occurred just before the limit of radiocarbon dating at 40,000 to 35,000 BP. In Europe, Mousterian tools were made by archaic Neanderthals. In Africa, such tools were made by early anatomically-modern Homo sapiens. Similar people also made similar tools which are categorized as Alterian. To avoid confusion about their makers, the Mousterian and Alterian tools are now sometimes grouped as Aterian. With more recent dating methods, the tools are now understood to have been mostly produced during the humid Eemian interglacial and later phases of MIS 5, from 130,000 to 72,000 BP. Mousterian tools are frequently older than the Aterian tools.
