8/8/2019 us Claim Etruscans Originated in Turkey Vindicated

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,,2105426,00.html

The enigma of Italy's ancient Etruscans is finally unravelled

Genetic research DNA tests on their Italian descendants show the 'tuscii' came fromTurkey

John Hooper in RomeMonday June 18, 2007The Guardian

The Bride and the Bridegroom, one of the great Etruscan works of artAncient wonders ... The Etruscans created great works of art including the Bride andBridegroom, or the Married Couple.

They gave us the word "person" and invented a symbol of iron rule later adopted bythe fascists. Some even argue it was they who really moulded Roman civilisation.

Yet the Etruscans, whose descendants today live in central Italy, have long beenamong the great enigmas of antiquity. Their language, which has never properly beendeciphered, was unlike any other in classical Italy. Their origins have been hotlydebated by scholars for centuries.

Genetic research made public at the weekend appears to put the matter beyond doubt,however. It shows the Etruscans came from the area which is now Turkey - and thatthe nearest genetic relatives of many of today's Tuscans and Umbrians are to befound, not in Italy, but around Izmir.

The European Human Genetic Conference in Nice was told on Saturday the results of a study carried out in three parts of Tuscany: the Casentino valley, and two towns,Volterra and Murlo, where important finds have been made of Etruscan remains. Ineach area, researchers took DNA samples from men with surnames unique to thedistrict and whose families had lived there for at least three generations.

They then compared their Y chromosomes, which are passed from father to son, with

those of other groups in Italy, the Balkans, modern-day Turkey and the Greek islandof Lemnos, which linguistic evidence suggests could have links to the Etruscans.

"The DNA samples from Murlo and Volterra are much more highly correlated tothose of the eastern peoples than to those of the other inhabitants of [Italy]," saidAlberto Piazza of the University of Turin, who presented the research. "One particular genetic variant, found in the samples from Murlo, was shared only with people fromTurkey."

This year, a similar but less conclusive study that tracked the DNA passed down frommothers to daughters, pointed to a direct genetic input from western Asia. In 2004, a

team of researchers from Italy and Spain used samples taken from Etruscan burialchambers to establish that the Etruscans were more genetically akin to each other than

http://forums.heavengames.com/redir/http%3A/www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0%2C%2C2105426%2C00.htmlhttp://forums.heavengames.com/redir/http%3A/www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0%2C%2C2105426%2C00.html

8/8/2019 us Claim Etruscans Originated in Turkey Vindicated

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It is known the Etruscans tried to predict the future by reading the patterns of lightning. It is thought that they introduced the chariot to Italy. They almost certainlyate good meat. Tuscany is famed for its beef, particularly that from the Chiana valley,which has been celebrated since classical times.

Another recent genetic study, of "chianina" and three other Tuscan cattle strains,found they were unrelated to Italian breeds. Yet matches were found in Turkey andthe Balkans, along the supposed route of some of ancient Italy's most enigmaticimmigrants.

Timeline

1200BC First traces of Etruscan civilisation

700BC Etruscans borrow alphabetic writing from Greeks, and become first people inItaly to write

616-579BC Rome ruled by its first, legendary Etruscan king, Lucius TarquiniusPriscus

550BC Etruscan power at zenith. Three confederations hold Po valley and coast southof Rome, heartland of southern Tuscany, and western Umbria. Allied withCarthaginians, Etruscans trade across the Mediterranean

535BC At Alalia, off Corsica, fleet of Carthaginians and Etruscans defeat Greek fleet.But Carthaginians, not Etruscans, assert control over seas

510BC Last Etruscan king, Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, is expelled from Rome

474BC At Cumae, off Naples, Greek fleet defeats Etruscans, who start to lose grip onarea south of Rome

396BC Romans capture Veii, an Etruscan settlement north of Rome; destruction of settlement marks start of long period in which Romans gradually annex towns of Etruscan heartland. By start of first century BC, all of Etruria has been absorbed byRome republic