The History of Etruria

[Boreas]

On the origin of the Etruscan civilisation

One of anthropology's most enduring mysteries - the origins of the ancient Etruscan civilisation - may finally have been solved, with a study of cattle. This culturally distinct and technologically
advanced civilisation inhabited central Italy from about the 8th century BCE, until it was assimilated into Roman culture around the end of the 4th century BCE.

The origins of the Etruscans, with their own non-Indo-European language, have been debated by archaeologists, geneticists and linguists for centuries. Writing in the 5th century BCE, the Ancient
Greek historian Herodotus claimed that the Etruscans had arrived in Italy from Lydia, now called Anatolia in modern-day Turkey.
     
To try and discover more about the Etruscans' movements, Marco Pellecchia at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza, Italy, and colleagues have analysed mitochondrial DNA in
modern herds of Bos Taurus cattle in the north, south and central regions of Italy. This genetic material is passed down the female line from mother to offspring.

The team found that almost 60% of the mitochondrial DNA in cows in the central Tuscan region of the country - where the Etruscan civilisation is thought to have arisen - was the same as that in cows from 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, the researchers say.

Pellecchia notes that no archaeological or genetic traces of Etruscan culture have been found elsewhere between Turkey and Italy. This, combined with the Etruscans' famed nautical prowess leads Pellecchia to conclude that the Etruscans and their cattle arrived in Italy by sea, and not by land. Mark Thomas, a human geneticist at University College London in the UK, says that European cattle tend to be genetically very similar, so the study's conclusion is plausible.

http://tinyurl.com/39z9t4

[Boreas]

Y chromosome genetic variation in the Italian peninsula is clinal and supports an admixture model for the Mesolithic-Neolithic encounter.

Capelli C, Brisighelli F, Scarnicci F, Arredi B, Caglia' A, Vetrugno G, Tofanelli S, Onofri V, Tagliabracci A, Paoli G, Pascali VL.

Institute of Legal Medicine, Universita' Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy; Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Park Road, Oxford OX1 3PS, UK.

The Italian peninsula, given its geographical location in the middle of the Mediterranean basin, was involved in the process of the peopling of Europe since the very beginning, with first settlements dating to the Upper Paleolithic. Later on, the Neolithic revolution left clear evidence in the archeological record, with findings going back to 7000 B.C. We have investigated the demographic consequences of the agriculture revolution in this area by genotyping Y chromosome markers for almost 700 individuals from 12 different regions. Data analysis showed a non-random distribution of the observed genetic variation, with more than 70% of the Y chromosome diversity distributed along a North-South axis. While the Greek colonisation during classical time appears to have left no significant contribution, the results support a male demic diffusion model, even if population replacement was not complete and the degree of Neolithic admixture with Mesolithic inhabitants was different in different areas of Italy.



Pairwise genetic distances between the Etruscans and modern populations of Europe and of the Mediterranean shores. The values referring to the current population of Tuscany are underlined.

[Veronica Poe]

Hmm, that's bad, the link to my pictures seems to be broken.

[Boreas]

Etruscan Gold

This link works;



http://www.etruscangold.com/?gclid=CMnUwrnZxIoCFSdcMAodGDgjfA

[Veronica Poe]

Yes, that's good for you, not so good for me.  No sense in starting topics on Etruscan culture if people can't see what it looks like. Best just start anew, I suppose.