The Etruscans formed a high culture in northern central Italy in the eight centuries before the birth of Christ. With their remarkable metalworking skills and a now-extinct, non-Indo-European language, the Etruscans stood out from their contemporary neighbors. Their geographical origins are therefore still controversial to this day. New genetic analyzes of the DNA of individuals from the period from 800 BC to 1000 AD now indicate that the people had their roots in Italy – and not, as other archaeologists assumed, in Asia Minor.
The debate about the origin of the Etruscans goes back to the time of ancient philosophers. The Greek historian Herodotus put forward the thesis around 500 BC that the ancestors of the Etruscans immigrated to Italy around 1000 BC from Lydia – an area on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Around 500 years later, however, Dionysius of Halicarnassus advocated the thesis that the Etruscans emerged from the Bronze Age Villanova culture and developed locally. Although a modern analysis of the genetic make-up of the present-day population of the Etruscan region has shown influences from Asia Minor, most archaeologists today assume that the culture originated locally. However, genetic evidence for this assumption has so far been scarce.
Old DNA from almost 2000 years
A team led by Cosimo Posth from the Max Planck Institute for the History of Man in Jena has now recorded ancient DNA from the petrified bones and teeth of 82 individuals from twelve archaeological sites in the Etruscan region, which span the period from 800 BC to 1000 AD . 48 individuals came from the Etruscan period in the eight centuries BC, six from the period from 1 to 500 AD and 28 from the early Middle Ages from 500 to 1000 AD.
The result: “Of the 48 individuals from the first time interval, we were able to assign 40 to a common genetic cluster that shows clear similarities with the genetic make-up of today’s Spaniards”, report the researchers, and conclude: “The Etruscan gene pool does not appear to be due to population movements from nearby To have originated east. The Etruscans have a local genetic profile that they share with other neighboring populations such as the Latins from Rome and the surrounding area, despite the cultural and linguistic differences between the two neighboring groups. “
Similar genes, different language
According to the analysis, a large part of the genetic profile of the Etruscans comes from steppe peoples who reached Italy and much of Europe during the Bronze Age. Their influence is considered to be genetically and culturally defining for our continent. This finding is remarkable in view of the fact that the distribution of the Indo-European languages can be traced back to this group, while the Etruscans of all people spoke a non-Indo-European language. “This linguistic persistence in connection with a genetic change calls into question simplifying assumptions, according to which genes are the same as languages,” the researchers write. Instead, complex scenarios are likely, in which there was genetic intermingling while at the same time the Etruscan culture and linguistic community was preserved.
The analyzes also showed that the Etruscan gene pool remained largely stable during the 800 years from the Iron Age to the Roman Republic. Only eight out of 48 individuals had a different genetic origin – from North Africa, Central Europe and the Middle East. “The pronounced genetic stability in Etruria over nearly a millennium is in line with historical records, which describe assimilation to the Roman Republic as a political rather than a demographic process, also thanks to the maintenance of the Etruscan culture and language in the Region has been occupied for centuries, ”explain the researchers.
Historical events visible in the gene pool
That changed with the emergence of the Roman Empire. The six individuals from the period from 1 to 500 AD had significantly different genetic profiles than the Etruscans from the previous 800 years. “This genetic shift clearly shows the role of the Roman Empire in the large-scale resettlement of people at a time of increased socio-economic and geographical mobility,” says Posth’s colleague Johannes Krause. Around 50 percent of the earlier Etruscan gene pool was exchanged, probably due to the influence of slaves and soldiers from the eastern Mediterranean.
The researchers noticed another upheaval in the gene pool in the early Middle Ages. The results suggest that Germanic immigrants spread across the Italian peninsula after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and left traces in the genome of the 28 examined individuals from the period between 500 and 1000 AD. The gene pool of these individuals is strikingly similar to that of the people who still live in the region today. “Our analyzes thus show a broad population continuity between the early Middle Ages and the present day in the regions of Tuscany, Lazio and Basilicata, which suggests that the main gene pool of today’s people in central and southern Italy was formed at least 1000 years ago,” they write Posth and his colleagues.
In order to better understand the genetic history of the Etruscans and their ancestors and descendants, according to the researchers, additional samples of ancient DNA from all over Italy will be needed.
Source: Cosimo Posth (Max Planck Institute for the History of Man, Jena) et al., Science Advances, doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abi7673