Unresolved g rays of 114 Te sorted into one-and two-dimensional spectra were studied. The reaction 64 Ni͑E beam 230 270 MeV͒ 1 54 Cr was used and the g rays were detected with the EUROBALL array. The effective moment of inertia for the quasicontinuum was found to be almost constant for I ͑20 40͒h, in contrast with the decreasing behavior of the terminating yrast band. A comparative analysis with the nucleus 164 Yb is presented and the results from a fluctuation analysis were compared with cranked shell model calculations. The comparison shows consistency in the scaling of the rotational damping width with mass number.PACS numbers: 21.10. Re, 21.60.Ka, 23.20.Lv, 27.60. + j The understanding of rotational motion in thermally excited nuclei is one of the central issues in nuclear structure and more in general in the study of effects beyond mean field. Until now, convincing evidence of collective damped rotation has been obtained for the mass region A ഠ 160. The overall features of quasicontinuum spectra have been well described with the rotational damping model calculations in which the mean-field rotational bands of the cranked shell model are mixed by the residual two-body interaction [1]. In the original formulation of rotational damping [2], schematic estimates for the scaling of the mixing process of mean-field bands with mass number were derived. The energy U 0 relative to the yrast line, at which the damping (mixing) sets in, depends on the level density and on the strength of the residual interaction, and is predicted to vary with mass number U 0~A 22͞3 . The rotational damping width G rot , expressing the width of the quadrupole transition strength distribution, is proportional to the statistical dispersion of the rotational frequency of cranked shell model n-particle-n-hole states. For G rot the scaling is expected to follow the relation G rotĨ A 25͞2 e 21 , where I, A, and e are the spin, mass number, and deformation, respectively. Experiments have earlier confirmed the prediction of U 0 ഠ 0.7 MeV for the onset of damping in rare-earth nuclei [3]. However, the damping width G rot appears to be a quantity not easily accessible in experiments [4]. Experimentally, its variation with mass number for normally deformed nuclei has never been investigated. On the other hand, a detailed test of effects beyond mean field such as the rotational damping mechanism is also relevant in view of the analogy discussed in Ref.[5] with nuclear magnetic resonance. To determine the validity of the relation given above, one needs to compare nuclei with a similar deformation, but with different masses; good examples are nuclei with A ഠ 160 and A ഠ 110 for which a factor of 2 difference in the damping width is expected.Some evidence of collective rotation in the quasicontinuum in nuclei with A 110 120, characterized by spherical shapes at low spins, was found two decades ago in experiments made with scintillator detectors [6]. More recent discrete spectroscopy studies made with multigermanium detector arrays have identified di...