Description

Summary: A mouse mandible found in an pit during excavations at Battlebury Bowl by Wessex Archaeology, in 1999.

Research results

A mouse mandible found in an pit during excavations at Battlebury Bowl by Wessex Archaeology, in 1999. Rodriguez (2019) found that the identifiable features of the mandible had not survived and thus it cannot be assigned to a specific species.

These bones were sampled by Rodriguez (2019) as part of their phylogeographical study of mammalian populations (including humans) since the Last Glacial Maximum, c. 12,000 years ago. Rodriguez' study sought to compare different mammal populations across Europe to provide better insight into how populations have moved across the continent in the holocene, and has suggested that the true picture may be more complex than simple pattern of southern refuges. They also investigate to what extent commensal species, such as the house mouse, can be used to infer human population movements; in particular attempting to trace the route by which one species of house mouse spread from the Near East and Cyprus to Britain.