Citation: The following pages form part of book, and can be cited as: Priyadarshi, P.

,
The First Civilization of the World, Siddhartha Publications, Delhi, 2011, pp. 127-131.

Mice Migration and Human Migration: Two

Linked Journeys
by P. Priyadarshi

Dispersal of Mice and Rats with farming Out of India

Over the last thirty years, we have known a lot about

prehistory of mice from DNA studies. Domestic mice (Mus)
lived on human stored food and food debris for ages. Thus
they could be called a commensal as well as a pest. Mus lived
only in north India since 900,000 years back,(1) as a
commensal of Homo erectus and later of Homo sapiens
sapiens (Ferris, 1983).(2) This commensal relation between
Homo erectus and Mus is indirect evidence that Homo erectus
had India as his predominant habitat.

Mus diverged into three principal species, viz. Mus musculus

domesticus, M. musculus musculus and M. castaneus by
500,000 years back (Geraldis, 2008; Din, 1996), and all the
species continued to live in India.(3) In India, Homo erectus
lived then. When Homo sapiens sapiens inhabited India in
about 100,000 ybp or earlier, these species became adapted to
live in and around human dwellings (Boursot, 1993).(4) Mice
probably felt safer there. Tsutim et al (2008) found that human
environment gives protection to sparrows from being
predated by carnivorous birds and animals.(5) The same
applies to mice. It is generally accepted that existence of these
mice was so much dependant on human food, that they
migrated with man as a passive migrant. “One of the most
characteristic features of house mice life history is probably its
commensalism in relation to humans. The worldwide
colonization by this species is mainly due to passive transport
by humans and is a consequence of its ecological dependence
on humans.”(6) If not all, most of the Mus species can be
found in India. Prager et al identified samples from
Afghanistan as Mus musculus musculus and castaneus and
samples from Pakistan, North India and Nepal as castaneus.(7)
Wilson and Reeder noted: “Genetic data indicated that
ranges of musculus, custaneous and domesticus likely
correspond to three distinct paths of expansion from the
Indian cradle.”(8) In fact later discovery of migration routes
and distribution ranges of human male lineages (Y-DNA)
R1a1a (Underhill, 2009); O2a (Kumar, Vikrant, 2007) and J2b
(Sengupta, 2006; Priyadarshi, 2011) exactly overlap those of
the three main Mus species.

Fig. Showing male lineage R1a (M17) distribution which overlaps the range of
Mus m. musculus. The inset picture gives the age of this lineage at various
places. That shows it originated in India. Source: Underhill, P. et al, Separating
the post-glacial coancestry of European and Asian Y chromosomes within
haplogroup R1a, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2010, April 18(4): 178-
184 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2987245/figure/fig1/
Fig Migration route of J2b. Source: Priyadarshi, P., The First Civilization of the World,
Siddhartha Publications, Delhi, 2011.

Distribution of J2b. Source: Family tree DNA: History Unearthed Daily, M102
Project; URL http://www.familytreedna.com/public/m102/default.aspx
 Table 1.
Haplogroup India Iran West Asia/ Balkans/Europe
(Southwest Anatolia
Asia)
J2b (M12) 0.431 0.332 0.243 0.1914
J2 (M172) 0.845 0.526
STR Variance of Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups (Greater variance indicates older age at that place)

Table 2
Haplogroup India Iran West Asia/ Balkans/Europe
Anatolia
J2 (M172) Not Not 18,600 years7
available available
J2b (M12; Not Not 8,600 years8 12,300 years in
also M102) available available Battaglia’s study;
9
This is a
descendant 6,700 years at
of J2 (above) Nekomedeia
(Macedonia)10
J2b2 (M241) 13,800 Not 10,100 5,800 years
This is a years11 available years12 (Central Italy);
descendant 5,400 years
of J2b (Albania); 2,900
(above) years (Greece);13
4,800 years14
Age of Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups J2b and J2 in different areas of its distribution (data pooled from
several studies). It has been proposed that J2b did not reach the Balkans from Anatolia, but used sea coastal
route to reach the Balkans and Italy. (See Di Giakomo, F. et al15). Tables are from Priyadarshi, P, 2011b

1
Sengupta, 2006, Fig. 4, p. 212.
2
Figure from Cinnioglu 2004, quoted by Sengupta, 2006, p. 216.
3
Cinnioglu, C. et al, Excavating Y-chromosome haplotype strata in Anatolia, Hum Genet (2004) 114 : 127–
148; Table 2, p. 131, J2b has been named J2e in this article.
4
Battaglia, 2009, Table 1, p. 7 of web version. Also, figure from Pericic et al. 2005, quoted by Sengupta
2006, p. 216.
5
Thanseem, I. et al, Genetic affinities among the lower castes and tribal groups of India: inference from Y
chromosome and mitochondrial DNA, BMC Genetics 2006, 7:42 Fig. 2, p. 6 of 11, web version.
6
Cinnioglu, C. 2004, Table 2, p. 131. .
7
Ibid
8
Ibid.
9
Battaglia, V. et al, Y-chromosomal evidence of the cultural diffusion of agriculture in southeast Europe,
European Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 17, 820 – 830; Table 1, p. 826.
10
King, R. J. et al, Differential Y-chromosome Anatolian Influences on the Greek and Cretan Neolithic,
Annals of Human Genetics 2008, 72,205–214; Table 2, page 210.
11
Sengupta, p. 216.
12
Battaglia, V. et al, Y-chromosomal evidence of the cultural diffusion of agriculture in southeast Europe,
European Journal of Human Genetics (2009) 17, 820 – 830; Table 2, p. 826.
13
Ibid
14
Ibid.
Groves (1984) surveyed a large number of murid rodents
(mice) and found that they were introduced into Island
Southeast Asia together with rice agriculture.(9) Mus caroli,
Mus cervicolor and Rattus argentiventer are widely
distributed in Mainland Southeast Asia north of the Malay
Peninsula; their distributions are spotty in the archipelago
and invariably restricted to wet rice growing areas. Mus dunni,
a small mice, native of northeast India and Rattus nitidus, a
native of Nepal, are ricefield pests of Indonesia. These all
species originated in India. (10) Bandicoot-rat, Bandicota
bengalensis, a noted rice-field pest in Indonesia originated in
Mahanadi delta in association with buffalo.(11)

Fig. . Showing distribution of Mus cervicolor in rice fields in the Southeast Asia.
From: Groves, Colin P., Of mice and men and pigs in the Indo-Australian
archipelago, Canberra Anthropology 1984, 7:1-19.

15
Di Giacomo, F. et al, Y chromosomal haplogroup J as a signature of the post-neolithic
colonization of Europe, Hum Genet 2004, 115: 357–371; p. 367, last line of conclusion.
Fig. DNA dendrogram showing that mice originated from India. Source: Darvish, J,
Bonhomme, F. and Orth, A., Genetic transition in the house mouse, Mus musculus of
Eastern Iranian Plateau, Folia Zool. 2006, 55(4): 349-357; URL
http://www.ivb.cz/folia/55/4/349-357.pdf

Black rat (Rattus rattus) is another species which originated in

India and then migrated to other parts of the world. From
India it migrated to West Asia and then to Europe. Rattus
reached West Asia by 20,000 years before present, a date
which is earlier than domestic mouse migration.(12) Other
migration of this species was from India to Madagascar and
Western Indian Ocean.(13) This was possibly because some
Indian farmers migrated to Western Indian Ocean shores (at
20,000 ybp), earlier than the supposed date of agriculture in
West Asia.

A large number of scientists have been studying domestic

mice migration for the last three decades. Domestic mouse
migration out of India did not take place until migration of
farming started after the glacial ice melted. The migration of
mouse out of India accompanied migration of cultivation
(Macholan et al, 2007).(15) Munro (2003), on the basis of
archeological evidence found that during the Natufian period,
West Asian people hunted fast-running small games. (16)
Such practices probably existed at other places outside India
too. Similar aggressive small game hunting was practiced in
Europe too, where from a single site in Portugal dating 12,000
ybp, 9000 rabbit bones have been recovered.(17)

Fig. . Migration route of domestic black rat and domestic cattle as suggested by Dorian
Fuller and Boivin Nicole. (14) The Indo-African migration suggested by them are much
later than those suggested by large number of available genetic studies.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/people/staff/fuller/usercontent_profile/Fuller_Boivin_Etude
s_IndienOcean.pdf
Hence in pre-Neolithic Iran, West Asia, Central Asia and China
both man and carnivores alike possible hunted any mice
leaving India and reaching those countries. Domestic mouse
is the only animal which has stayed in India for over 900,000
years without leaving this country until dispersal of farming
started. We have noted that Pre-Pottery Neolithic agriculture
started in India roughly about 13,000 ybp to 14,000 ybp. Mus
domesticus reached the Eastern Mediterranean basin in about
10,000 ybp. (18) We can corroborate these two findings and
say that 3000 years was the time required for migration of
mice from India to West Asia, the time which actually lapsed
in migration of Pre-Pottery Neolithic from India to West Asia.
Logical inference is that agriculture began first in India,
possibly much earlier than we can imagine, which kept mice
bound within Indian land for ages until finally agriculture
itself migrated out of India.(19) The route map of mice
migration as mapped by the geneticists is exactly the same as
that of human migration.

Fig. Route map of dispersal of domestic mice. The Mus musculus domesticus
migration, which occurred about 15,000 to 10,000 ybp, exactly mimics the
distribution map of haplogroup J2b to the west of India. Source: Figure from
Bonhomme et al. Genome Biology 2007 8:R80 doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-5-r80
(20). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1929145/figure/F1/

Fig. Routes of mice migration out of India. The route marked ‘d’ (for domesticus) overlaps the
route of human migration of male lineage haplogroup J2b. The route of mice marked ‘m’ (for
musculus) overlies the route of human migration of male lineage R1a (M17; new name R1a1a). It
is remarkable that J2 has been identified as a lineage carrying Indo-European language and
farming into West Asia and South Europe. On the other hand, R1a has been identified as a marker
of Aryan migration (Wells, 2001).
Source: Boursot et al 1996, URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1420-9101.1996.9040391.x/pdf
 Fig. Sowing farming and Austro-Asiatic language migration to the Southeast Asia as
male lineage (Y-Chr) )2a. This migration overlaps mice migration of castaneus sub sp.
Source: Kumar, V. et al, Kumar, Vikrant et al; Y-chromosome evidence suggests a
common paternal heritage of Austro-Asiatic populations, BMC Evol Biol 2007, 7: 47.
URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1851701/figure/F1/

Rajabi-Maham et al (2008) found that after reaching the Fertile

Crescent mice expansion toward Europe and Asia Minor took
at least two routes, tentatively termed the Mediterranean and
the Bosphorus/Black Sea routes. This scenario resembles that
of another domesticated species, the goat, and fits with the
known progression of Neolithic culture, they note. Migration
of both the goat and the domestic mouse took exactly the
same routes, at the same time around 12,000 years ago. This
cannot be a mere coincidence and is an evidence of Neolithic
human migration from India with goat and Mus
domesticus.(21)

Protracted commensality of Mus m. domesticus in India

indicates that Homo sapiens sapiens was doing some
primitive farming or foraging and storing food since much
before actual onset of Neolithic migration. Indians of that era
had possibly a settled life and home and they depended on
cereal, fruit and tuber diet. Initially, population was small, and
land abundant. Hence cultivation was not needed. Man used
to harvest ripe grains (rice, barley, millets) from wild fields and
store them. This stored food kept Mus domesticus tied to the
Indian households. Pestering of human households by mice
forced man to use more and more burnt clay pottery, and it
must have prompted him to invent and use metal pottery
much later in history.

The other sub-species of mice which migrated out of India to

Southeast Asia is Mus castaneus. This species has been adept
at digging holes in soil over hundreds of thousand years.
Probably they learned to do this in a bid to eat tubers which
grew in plenty under Indian soil. Mus caroli is another species
of Southeast Asian mice which dwells in rice fields. It seems to
have migrated much earlier than other species.

Cognate words for ‘mouse’ are found exclusively within the

Indo-European family of languages (English ‘mouse’, Latin
mus, Sanskrit mUSaka, muSika, mUs, muSka, (22) Pahlavi
musk), indicating expansion of domestic mouse out of India
with migrating Neolithic culture of the Indo-European
speakers of north India.

REFERENCES:
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Boursot, P., et al, Origin and radiation of the house mouse: mitochondrial DNA
phylogeny, Journal of Evolutionary Biology 1996, 9: 391-415.
2. Ferris, S. D. et al, Mitochondrial DNA evolution in mice, Genetics 1983, 105(3):681-
721.
3.
Geraldis, Armando, et al, Inferring the history of speciation in house mice from
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17(24):5349-5363. Also, Din, W. et al, Origin and radiation of the house mouse: clues
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the Indo-Australian archipelago, Canberra Anthropology 1984, 7:1-19.
10. Groves in Bellwood, P. et al, 1995.
11. Ibid.
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western Indian Ocean, with special emphasis on the colonization history of Madagascar,
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expansion of Mus musculus domesticus inferred from mitochondrial DNA coalescent,
from Iran to Europe, Mol Ecol 2007, 17(2): 627-641. Also, Cucchi, T. and Vigne, J.,
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22. Monier Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, Cologne Scanned copy on the net, pp.
824, 827.