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Etruscans
Wednesday 28 September 2005
Etruscans is a non-Indo-European population of preclassical Italy.
There is broad agreement that their culture developed locally, but the Etruscans’ evolutionary and migrational relationships are largely unknown.
The Etruscan culture developed in Central Italy (Etruria) in the first millennium BC and for centuries dominated part of the Italian Peninsula, including Rome.
The history of the Etruscans is at the roots of Mediterranean culture and civilization, but their origin is still debated: local or Eastern provenance?
To shed light on this mystery, bovine and human mitochondrial DNAs (mtDNAs) have been investigated, based on the well-recognized strict legacy which links human and livestock populations.
No significant heterogeneity emerged among archaeological sites or time periods, suggesting that different Etruscan communities shared not only a culture but also a mitochondrial gene pool. (15015132)
Genetic distances and sequence comparisons show closer evolutionary relationships with the eastern Mediterranean shores for the Etruscans than for modern Italian populations. (15015132)
All mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscans appear typically European or West Asian, but only a few haplotypes were found to have an exact match in a modern mitochondrial database, raising new questions about the Etruscans’ fate after their assimilation into the Roman state. (15015132)
The origin of the Etruscan people has been a source of major controversy for the past 2,500 years, and several hypotheses have been proposed to explain their language and sophisticated culture, including an Aegean/Anatolian origin. (17357081)
5% of mtDNA haplotypes in Tuscany are shared exclusively between Tuscans and Near Easterners and occupy terminal positions in the phylogeny. These findings support a direct and rather recent genetic input from the Near East, a scenario in agreement with the Lydian origin of Etruscans. Such a genetic contribution has been extensively diluted by admixture, but it appears that there are still locations in Tuscany, such as Murlo, where traces of its arrival are easily detectable. (17357081)
In the region corresponding to ancient Etruria (Tuscany, Central Italy), several Bos taurus breeds have been reared since historical times. These breeds have a strikingly high level of mtDNA variation, which is found neither in the rest of Italy nor in Europe. The Tuscan bovines are genetically closer to Near Eastern than to European gene pools and this Eastern genetic signature is paralleled in modern human populations from Tuscany, which are genetically close to Anatolian and Middle Eastern ones. The evidence collected corroborates the hypothesis of a common past migration: both humans and cattle reached Etruria from the Eastern Mediterranean area by sea. Hence, the Eastern origin of Etruscans, first claimed by the classic historians Herodotus and Thucydides, receives strong independent support. As the Latin philosopher Seneca wrote: Asia Etruscos sibi vindicat (Asia claims the Etruscans back).
See also
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)
Tuscany
western Eurasian populations
near Eastern mtDNA haplogroups
haplogroups
haplotypes
References
Achilli A, Olivieri A, Pala M, Metspalu E, Fornarino S, Battaglia V, Accetturo M, Kutuev I, Khusnutdinova E, Pennarun E, Cerutti N, Di Gaetano C, Crobu F, Palli D, Matullo G, Santachiara-Benerecetti AS, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Semino O, Villems R, Bandelt HJ, Piazza A, Torroni A. Mitochondrial DNA variation of modern Tuscans supports the near eastern origin of Etruscans. Am J Hum Genet. 2007 Apr;80(4):759-68. PMID: 17357081
Pellecchia M, Negrini R, Colli L, Patrini M, Milanesi E, Achilli A, Bertorelle G, Cavalli-Sforza LL, Piazza A, Torroni A, Ajmone-Marsan P. The mystery of Etruscan origins: novel clues from Bos taurus mitochondrial DNA. Proc Biol Sci. 2007 May 7;274(1614):1175-9. PMID: 17301019
Vernesi C, Caramelli D, Dupanloup I, Bertorelle G, Lari M, Cappellini E, Moggi-Cecchi J, Chiarelli B, Castri L, Casoli A, Mallegni F, Lalueza-Fox C, Barbujani G. The Etruscans: a population-genetic study. Am J Hum Genet. 2004 Apr;74(4):694-704. PMID: 15015132
