The origin and legacy of the Etruscans
A new study reports genome-wide data of ancient Italian individuals to
trace the origins of the Etruscans and their contribution to later populations


Date:
September 24, 2021
Source:
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
Summary:
Researchers present comprehensive ancient DNA data retrieved from
peoples culturally affiliated with the iconic Etruscans, settling
a long-lasting debate on the origins of this highly skilled and
enigmatic culture.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The Etruscan civilization, which flourished during the Iron Age in
central Italy, has intrigued scholars for millennia. With remarkable metallurgical skills and a now-extinct, non-Indo-European language,
the Etruscans stood out from their contemporary neighbors, leading to
intense debate from the likes of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus
on their geographical origins.


==========================================================================
Now, a new study by a team of scholars from Germany, Italy, USA,
Denmark and the UK, sheds light on the origin and legacy of the enigmatic Etruscans with genome-wide data from 82 ancient individuals from central
and southern Italy, spanning 800 BCE to 1000 CE. Their results show
that the Etruscans, despite their unique cultural expressions, were
closely related to their italic neighbors, and reveal major genetic transformations associated with historical events.

An intriguing phenomenon With an extinct language that is only partly understood, much of what was initially known about Etruscan civilization
comes from the commentary of later Greek and Roman writers. One hypothesis about their origins, the one favored by Herodotus, points to the influence
of ancient Greek cultural elements to argue that the Etruscans descended
from migrating Anatolian or Aegean groups.

Another, championed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, proposes that the
Etruscans originated and developed locally from the Bronze Age Villanovan culture and were therefore an autochthonous population.

Although the current consensus among archaeologists supports a local
origin for the Etruscans, a lack of ancient DNA from the region has
made genetic investigations inconsistent. The current study, with a
time transect of ancient genomic information spanning almost 2000 years collected from 12 archaeological sites, resolves lingering questions about Etruscan origins, showing no evidence for a recent population movement
from Anatolia. In fact, the Etruscans shared the genetic profile of the
Latins living in nearby Rome, with a large proportion of their genetic
profiles coming from steppe-related ancestry that arrived in the region
during the Bronze Age.

Considering that steppe-related groups were likely responsible for the
spread of Indo-European languages, now spoken around the world by billions
of people, the persistence of a non-Indo-European Etruscan language is
an intriguing and still unexplained phenomenon that will require further archaeological, historical, linguistic and genetic investigation.



========================================================================== "This linguistic persistence, combined with a genetic turnover, challenges simple assumptions that genes equal languages and suggests a more complex scenario that may have involved the assimilation of early Italic speakers
by the Etruscan speech community, possibly during a prolonged period
of admixture over the second millennium BCE," says David Caramelli,
Professor at the University of Florence.

Periods of change Despite a few individuals of eastern Mediterranean,
northern African, and central Europeanorigins, the Etruscan-related
gene pool remained stable for at least 800 years, spanning the Iron
Age and Roman Republic period. The study finds, however, that during
the subsequent Roman Imperial period, central Italy experienced a large
scale genetic shift, resulting from admixture with eastern Mediterranean populations, which likely included slaves and soldiers relocated across
the Roman Empire.

"This genetic shift clearly depicts the role of the Roman Empire in
the large- scale displacement of people in a time of enhanced upward or downward socioeconomic and geographic mobility," says Johannes Krause,
Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Looking at the more recent Early Middle Ages, the researchers identified northern European ancestries spreading across the Italian peninsula
following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. These results suggest
that Germanic migrants, including individuals associated with the newly established Longobard Kingdom, might have left a traceable impact on
the genetic landscape of central Italy.

In the regions of Tuscany, Lazio, and Basilicata the population's ancestry remained largely continuous between the Early Medieval times and today, suggesting that the main gene pool of present-day people from central
and southern Italy was largely formed at least 1000 years ago.

Although more ancient DNA from across Italy is needed to support the
above conclusions, ancestry shifts in Tuscany and northern Lazio similar
to those reported for the city of Rome and its surroundings suggests that historical events during the first millennium CE had a major impact on
the genetic transformations over much of the Italian peninsula.

"The Roman Empire appears to have left a long-lasting contribution to the genetic profile of southern Europeans, bridging the gap between European
and eastern Mediterranean populations on the genetic map of western
Eurasia," says Cosimo Posth, Professor at the University of Tu"bingen
and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Max_Planck_Institute_for_the_Science_of_Human_History.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Cosimo Posth, Valentina Zaro, Maria A. Spyrou, Stefania Vai,
Guido A.

Gnecchi-Ruscone, Alessandra Modi, Alexander Peltzer, Angela Mo"tsch,
Kathrin Na"gele, AAshild J. Vaagene, Elizabeth A. Nelson, Rita
Radzevičiūtė, Ca"cilia Freund, Lorenzo M. Bondioli,
Luca Cappuccini, Hannah Frenzel, Elsa Pacciani, Francesco Boschin,
Giulia Capecchi, Ivan Martini, Adriana Moroni, Stefano Ricci,
Alessandra Sperduti, Maria Angela Turchetti, Alessandro Riga,
Monica Zavattaro, Andrea Zifferero, Henrike O. Heyne, Eva
Ferna'ndez-Domi'nguez, Guus J.

Kroonen, Michael McCormick, Wolfgang Haak, Martina Lari, Guido
Barbujani, Luca Bondioli, Kirsten I. Bos, David Caramelli, Johannes
Krause. The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year
archeogenomic time transect. Science Advances, 2021; 7 (39) DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.abi7673 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210924182513.htm

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