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First Occurrence of the House Mouse (Mus Musculus Domesticus Schwarz & Schwarz, 1943) in Western Mediterranean : A Zooarchaeological Revision of Sub-Fossil Occurrences

Cucchi, T.; Vigne, J.D.; Auffray, J.C.

Authors

T. Cucchi

J.D. Vigne

J.C. Auffray



Abstract

This paper provides a critical analysis of archaeological small mammal collections in the Mediterranean area, from the Late Glacial to the first centuries AD, to validate the presence/absence of the house mouse through zooarchaeological criteria. The results have been synthesized through a diachronic map, whose chronological phases are related to socio-economic and cultural human evolution. The house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) progression in the Mediterranean begins with a quick but limited diffusion in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin achieved around the 8th millennium BC. Until the 1st millennium BC, the invasive process seems to have stopped or drastically slowed, despite the increasing opportunities of passive transport during the Bronze Age. During the 1st millennium BC, there was mass colonization by the house mouse of the entire Western Mediterranean Basin and Northern Europe. We propose to explain this chronological gap in the colonization of the Eastern and Western Mediterranean using source-sink theory considering that the western environments acted like sinks until the first millennium BC. At that time the Western Mediterranean was fully opened to Eastern influences and migrations, and the human pressures on the environment drastically increased. This may have favoured definitively the adaptation of the house mouse to the Western commensal niches.

Citation

Cucchi, T., Vigne, J., & Auffray, J. (2005). First Occurrence of the House Mouse (Mus Musculus Domesticus Schwarz & Schwarz, 1943) in Western Mediterranean : A Zooarchaeological Revision of Sub-Fossil Occurrences. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 84(3), 429-445. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00445.x

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Mar 1, 2005
Deposit Date Apr 6, 2009
Journal Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Print ISSN 0024-4066
Electronic ISSN 1095-8312
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 84
Issue 3
Pages 429-445
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00445.x