First asserted record of the house mouse in Morocco: application of a multidisciplinary approach to the site of Rirha (5th − 1st c. BC) - Éco-Anthropologie Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Année : 2024

First asserted record of the house mouse in Morocco: application of a multidisciplinary approach to the site of Rirha (5th − 1st c. BC)

Résumé

The biogeographic and demographic history of the house mouse, Mus musculus domesticus, has been closely linked to human history since pre-Neolithic times – this species first appeared in the Near East and subsequently dispersed westward with humans into regions with local Mus species. However, if this issue is now well known for the eastern Mediterranean, data are still lacking for the western Mediterranean, and especially for north-western Africa. In the present study, we combine morphological, geometric morphometric and genetic analyses to Mus remains from the Moroccan site of Rirha, dating to the Mauretanian period (5th to 1st century BC). Thanks to this multidisciplinary approach, we were able to confirm the first asserted record of the house mouse in a well-established archaeological context in the Maghreb. The morphometric and genetic results are largely congruent, with a single discrepancy observed for one specimen, which may be linked to possible hybridization between M. m. domesticus and M. spretus species. Further analyses are required on material from other North African sites dating to earlier chrono-cultural periods to better document the oldest appearance and the dispersal of the house mouse in the south-western Mediterranean through time.
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Dates et versions

hal-04599381 , version 1 (03-06-2024)

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Ángel Domínguez-García, José Utge, Camille Larrue, Abel Moclán, Mohamed Kbiri Alaoui, et al.. First asserted record of the house mouse in Morocco: application of a multidisciplinary approach to the site of Rirha (5th − 1st c. BC). Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 2024, 16 (6), pp.93. ⟨10.1007/s12520-024-02002-8⟩. ⟨hal-04599381⟩
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