Passive transport of the house mouse (Mus musculus domesticus) to Cyprus at the Early Preceramic Neolithic (late 9th and 8th millennia cal. BC)

Sample scarcity and the need of a methodology well-suited to determination of archaeological specimens are responsible for the lack of information on the mechanism and on the ecological and anthropological conditions of the spread of the house mouse in Europe. We applied Fourier outline analysis to the lower first molars of mice from assemblages trapped in water wells from Early and Middle PPNB in Cyprus (Kissonerga-Mylouthkia). Results suggest that the house mouse was a part of the Neolithic ecological and cultural package introduced into the island by the very first agro-pastoral societies coming from the mainland. (C) 2002 Academie des sciences / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.