[ChicagoHebrew]

The Murlo residents’ lineages are quite different from those of people in other Italian towns. When placed on a chart of mitochondrial lineages from Europe and the Near East, the people of Murlo map closest to Palestinians and Syrians, a team led by Dr. Torroni and Alessandro Achilli reports in the April issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics.

There is a well-established Rabbinic tradition that Rome emerged partially from Edom, a sister nation to Israel that inhabited portions of present-day Israel and Jordan. I've always thought the tradition quite improbable, even fanciful, and probably deriving from Rome's decision to put an Edomite (Herod) on the throne of Judea. This study, I suppose, gives the Rabbis at least a drop of credibility -- although given that Etruscan isn't Semetic either, just a drop.

[Oberon]

There is a well-established Rabbinic tradition that Rome emerged partially from Edom, a sister nation to Israel that inhabited portions of present-day Israel and Jordan.

Edom, a nation of people descended from Jacob's big brother Esau, and roundly cursed by prophet after prophet for their treatment of the Hebrews. Petra was once an Edomite capitol, and remains an eerie and fascinating historical site in modern-day Jordan.