Tuscans 'not descended from Etruscans'

Italy Mag ^ | 04 July 2009 | Italy

[BGHater]

The current population of Tuscany is not descended from the Etruscans, the people that lived in the region during the Bronze Age, a new Italian study has shown.

Researchers at the universities of Florence, Ferrara, Pisa, Venice and Parma discovered the genealogical discontinuity by testing samples of mitochondrial DNA from remains of Etruscans and people who lived in the Middle Ages (between the 10th and 15th centuries) as well as from people living in the region today.

While there was a clear genetic link between Medieval Tuscans and the current population, the relationship between modern Tuscans and their Bronze Age ancestors could not be proven, the study showed.

''Some people have hypothesised that the most ancient DNA sequences, those from the Etruscan era, could contain errors or have been contaminated but tests conducted with new methods exclude this,'' said David Caramelli of Florence University and Guido Barbujani of Ferrara University.

''The most simple explanation is that the structure of the Tuscan population underwent important demographic changes in the first millennium before Christ,'' they said.

''Immigration and forced migration have diluted the Etruscan genetic inheritance so much as to make it difficult to recognise''.

The scientific data does not necessarily mean that the Etruscans died out, the researchers said.

Teams from Florence and Ferrara universities are working to identify whether traces of the Etruscans' genetic inheritance may still exist in people living in isolated locations in the region.

The new study is published online by the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

The Etruscans lived mainly between the rivers Tiber and Arno in modern-day Umbria, Lazio and Tuscany, in the first millennium BC.

By the sixth century BC they had become the dominant force in central Italy, but repeated attacks from Gauls and Syracusans later forced them into an alliance with the embryonic Roman state, which gradually absorbed Etruscan civilization.

Most of what is known about the Etruscans derives from archaeology as the few accounts passed down by Roman historians tend to be hostile, portraying them as gluttonous and lecherous.

This problem is compounded by the fact that Etruscan cities were built almost entirely of wood and so vanished quickly, leaving little for archaeologists to investigate.

[BGHater]

'Most of what is known about the Etruscans derives from archaeology as the few accounts passed down by Roman historians tend to be hostile, portraying them as gluttonous and lecherous.'

Sounds like they would make a great tail gate party.

[BGHater]

ping.

[ozzymandus]

If you've got the Romans portraying you as “gluttonous and lecherous”, you must be a real party animal.

[mamelukesabre]

Obviously this was written ages before romans themselves became gluttonous and lecherous.

[Ancient Drive]

my thoughts exactly. gluttonous and lecherous... I may be tuscan. rofl

[Perdogg]

What about the Vulcans and the Romulans?

[the invisib1e hand]

Tuscans 'not descended from Etruscans'

Thanks for this. Now I can sleep at night, finally knowing the truth.

[Bratch]

Mmmm. Vulcan women.

[Jagman]

If ‘e can’t trust Etruscans, who can ‘e trust-can?

[nufsed]

.............and stealing their women

[Tallguy]

Isn’t modern Tuscany part of what the Romans called “Cisalpine Gaul”? If I’m right, that would sorta indicate that the Gauls from over the alpines displaced the bronze age inhabitants.

[Tallguy]

The real question is did the Etruscans invent E-surance?

[SunkenCiv]

Cousins. Uh-oh, where’d that mental image come from...

[SunkenCiv]

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[WoofDog123]

also wonder how much german immigration occurred in the area in the late empire. I would assume they might be able to link current/medieval dna of the area to other historical dna of known groups that have migrated.

[blam]

Cisalpine Gaul

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Isn’t modern Tuscany part of what the Romans called “Cisalpine Gaul”?

No, the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gaul was the Rubicon river, which is why when Caesar took his army out of his province by crossing the Rubicon he had declared war on the Senate of Rome.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

also wonder how much german immigration occurred in the area in the late empire

Both the Ostrogoths and the Lombards occupied Tuscany.

[Cincinna]

Thanks again , Civ,for a fascinating archaeology post.

I have always found the Etruscans fascinating.

Although there are Etruscan ruins throughout Italy, little or nothing is known about their origins, language, culture, or final end.

[colorado tanker]

If you've got the Romans portraying you as “gluttonous and lecherous”, you must be a real party animal.

Supposedly Etruscan women exercised with men in the nude, took part in the banquets and drinking parties and were free to have sex with men other than their husbands.

Or maybe that's just what the Romans wanted us to believe.