Scientists have discovered the genetic origin of the Etruscans who “disappeared” with the Romans

Scholars found evidence that the Etruscans, who lived on the Italian peninsula, were not of Asian origin, and rejected the version that they came from the eastern Mediterranean.

Scientists said that the Etruscans were genetically very close to the Italian people, concluded paleontologists who analyzed the DNA of 82 individuals from Etruria and southern Italy who lived between 800 BC and 1000 AD. in the statement from the University of Florence, Italy.

The Etruscans were a civilization that inhabited the central Apennine Peninsula, present-day Italy, in the first millennium BC. The oldest known Etruscan inscriptions, which was an isolated non-European language, dating back to the eighth century BC. Etruscan cities, although united by a common language and religious ideas, never formed a unitary state.

The origin of the Etruscans has always been controversial. Some researchers believe that the Etruscans were formed by migration waves from the eastern Mediterranean, Central Europe and the area north of the Black Sea, which was suggested by Herodotus, a Greek geographer and historian.

According to the historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, the Etruscans were of indigenous origin. In this case, archaeologists associate them with the oldest culture of the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in northern and central Italy.

The version of the original Etruscans was highly questionable. Scholars associate the emergence of Asian elements with “extensive genetic change resulting from admixture with groups of eastern Mediterranean populations that likely included slaves and transported soldiers.” Through the Roman Empire“.

The Etruscans “share a genetic past with the Latins inhabiting the areas around Rome, with a large proportion of their genetic profiles coming from a steppe-related lineage that arrived in the area during the Bronze Age,” says a statement from the University of Florence. , Italy.

The lost language of the Etruscans is still a mystery, as it is not of Indo-European origin. It was the inhabitants of the Eurasian steppes who brought it and helped it spread and develop in European lands.

“This aspect is still interesting and requires further archaeological, historical and linguistic research. It also points to a more complex process of Italian population formation,” say the study researchers. published in the journal Science Advances.

Although they ruled the sea for some time, the Etruscans preferred to settle in the hills near the rivers. Nothing survives from settlements built of wood, but stone walls and many burials.

Many customs, including gladiator battles and chariot racing, are believed to have Etruscan roots, although their cultures and those of the Romans were different. The Etruscans completely lost their dominant position with the expansion of Roman influence, although their descendants were the first rulers of Rome.