Where Did the Etruscans Come From?

About 800 BC, in central Italy, a mysterious culture flourished.

These people, called the Etruscans, are today regarded as the real founders of Rome.

They spoke a non Indo-European language, so they cannot be connected to the neighboring Indo-European Italic tribes, which spoke Latin.

But this technologically advanced civilization, which was subsequently incorporated at the end of the 4th century BC by the Romans, brought a rich heritage to the Roman culture.

The origins of the Etruscans are a vivid and unsolved subject of debate amongst archaeologists, geneticists and linguists for centuries.

Ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed in the 5th century BC that the Etruscans had come to Italy from Lydia, modern day Anatolia in Turkey and some historians assimilate them to the mysterious "People of the Sea", seafaring raiders that warred with the Egyptians in the 12th century BC.

A new study made by a team led by Marco Pellecchia at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza, Italy, might have found an answer. To see where the Etruscans came from, the researchers have analyzed mitochondrial DNA in modern herds of cattle (Bos taurus) in the north, south and central regions of Italy. The mitochondrial DNA is always passed down from the mother to offspring, so it tracks a maternal line.

The results revealed that almost 60% of the mitochondrial DNA in cows in the central modern day Tuscan region (ancient Etruria), where the Etruscan civilization is believed to have emerged or entered the peninsula, matched with mitochondrial DNA from cows of Anatolia and the Middle East. "There was little or no genetic convergence between cows from the north and south of Italy and those from Turkey and the Middle East", researchers say.

The researchers note that between Asia Minor (Turkey) and Italy, archaeologists have not found remains or genetic traces of the Etruscan culture. This data, combined with the Etruscans' famed sailing skills, led the team to conclude that the Etruscans and their cattle reached Italy by sea, and not by land. "The European cattle tend to be genetically very similar, so the study's conclusion is plausible", said Mark Thomas, a human geneticist at University College London in the UK.

Image: 6th century BC wall painting: Etruscan dancing