RT Journal Article
T1 First asserted record of the house mouse in Morocco: application of a multidisciplinary approach to the site of Rirha (5th − 1st c. BC)
A1 Domínguez García, Ángel Carmelo
A1 Utge, José
A1 Larrue, Camille
A1 Moclán, Abel
A1 Alaoui, Mohamed Kbiri
A1 Rocca, Elsa
A1 Carrato, Charlotte
A1 Callegarin, Laurent
A1 De Chazelle, Claire-Anne
A1 Oueslati, Tarek
A1 Stoetzel, Emmanuelle
AB 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.
PB Springer
SN 1866-9557
YR 2024
FD 2024-06-03
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118541
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/118541
LA eng
NO Domínguez-García, Á. C., Utge, J., Larrue, C., Moclán, A., Kbiri Alaoui, M., Rocca, E., Carrato, C., Callegarin, L., De Chazelle, C.-A., Oueslati, T., & Stoetzel, E. (2024). 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, 16(6), 93
NO European Union “NextGenerationEU/PRTR”
NO Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris
DS Docta Complutense
RD 27 abr 2025