A palaeontological and archaeozoological survey has allowed us to establish the different steps in the colonization of western Eurasia and northern Africa by the house mouseMus musculus. After successive immigration waves of the genusMusinto this zone from the late Pliocene to the upper Pleistocene, the house mouse appeared and remained confined to the easternmost Mediterranean Basin at the uppermost Pleistocene. The first progression of this species into the Mediterranean Basin occurred in the Middle East from the Epipaleolithic to the Neolithic. Subsequently, this species was found in the western Mediterranean Basin during the Bronze Age and in north‐west Europe during the Iron Age. In comparison to this latter zone, north central Europe was colonized relatively early, from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age which may, in fact, not only correspond to a much earlier invasion of Europe byM. musculus musculusbut also suggest that the distribution of this subspecies extended much further west than it does nowadays, at a time whenM. musculus domesticuswas restricted to the Mediterranean zone. This archaeological survey is in agreement with genetic data which provide indications as to the speed, steps and pathways of progression of house mouse populations in western Eurasi