Mice in the sanctuary? House mice from Early Bronze Age Dhaskalio

Abstract

The mouse remains recovered from the excavations at the Early Bronze Age settlement at Dhaskalio in the Cyclades were identified as Mus musculus domesticus, the western subspecies of the house mouse, using 2D Geometric Morphometrics of the first lower molar. This paper presents the results of the Geometric Morphometrics analysis and discusses the occurrence of the house mouse in Dhaskalio Phases A, B and C, and particularly its earliest presence in Phase A, corresponding to the earlier part of the Early Cycladic II period (c. 2750–2550 BCE). This find suggests the house mouse arrival on Dhaskalio as a boat stowaway, probably hidden in grain cargoes; this was probably part of its broader dispersal around the Aegean, as also indicated by contemporaneous evidence from other sites. It also gives some insight into the subsistence and import strategies employed at the site from the earliest period. Overall, the chronostratigraphic context of this discovery in comparison to other synchronous contexts is discussed in the framework of maritime networks of the Aegean Early Bronze Age.