Editing Lydia (section)

==== Lydians, the Tyrrhenians and the Etruscans ====
{{main|Origins of the Etruscans}}
The relationship between the [[Etruscans]] of northern and central Italy and the Lydians has long been a subject of conjecture. The Greek historian [[Herodotus]] believed they came from Lydia, but [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], a 1st-century BC historian, argued that the Etruscans were indigenous to Italy and unrelated to the Lydians.<ref name="Dionysius">{{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=Book I, Chapters 30 1 |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus}}</ref> Dionysius pointed out that the 5th-century historian [[Xanthus of Lydia]], who was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never linked the Etruscans to Lydia or mentioned Tyrrhenus as a Lydian ruler.<ref name="Dionysius" />

In contemporary scholarship, Etruscologists overwhelmingly support an indigenous origin for the Etruscans,<ref name="Turfa2017">{{cite book |last1=Turfa |first1=Jean MacIntosh |title=The Peoples of Ancient Italy |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-61451-520-3 |editor1-last=Farney |editor1-first=Gary D. |location=Berlin |pages=637–672 |language=en |chapter=The Etruscans |doi=10.1515/9781614513001 |author-link1=Jean MacIntosh Turfa |editor2-last=Bradley |editor2-first=Gary}}</ref><ref name="DeGrummond2014">{{cite book |last1=De Grummond |first1=Nancy T. |title=A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc |year=2014 |isbn=9781444337341 |editor1-last=McInerney |editor1-first=Jeremy |location=Chichester, UK |pages=405–422 |chapter=Ethnicity and the Etruscans |doi=10.1002/9781118834312 |author-link1=Nancy Thomson de Grummond}}</ref> dismissing Herodotus' account as based on erroneous etymologies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeVYyDQqQD8C&q=Michael+Grant,+Lydians+origins+Etruscans&pg=PT181 |title=The Rise of the Greeks |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |year=1987 |isbn=978-0-684-18536-1 |page=311}}</ref> [[Michael Grant (author)|Michael Grant]] argue that the Etruscans may have propagated this narrative to facilitate their trading in Asia Minor, when many cities in Asia Minor, and the Etruscans themselves, were at war with the Greeks.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Michael |title=The Etruscans |publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-9650356-8-2 |location=London}}</ref> The French scholar [[Dominique Briquel]] contends that "the story of an exodus from Lydia to Italy was a deliberate political fabrication created in the Hellenized milieu of the court at Sardis in the early 6th century BC."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0awiBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA292 |title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |date=2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191016752 |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |edition=2 |series=Oxford Companions |location=Oxford |pages=291–292 |language=en |quote=Briquel's convincing demonstration that the famous story of an exodus, led by Tyrrhenus from Lydia to Italy, was a deliberate political fabrication created in the Hellenized milieu of the court at Sardis in the early 6th cent. bce.. |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |editor3-last=Eidinow |editor3-first=Esther}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |title=The Etruscan World |publisher=Routledge Taylor & Francis Group |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-415-67308-2 |editor1-last=Turfa |editor1-first=Jean |location=London and New York |pages=36–56 |language=en |chapter=Etruscan Origins and the Ancient Authors}}</ref> Ultimately, these Greek-authored accounts of the Etruscan origins are only the expression of the image that Etruscans' allies or adversaries wanted to divulge and should not be considered historical.<ref>[[Dominique Briquel]], ''Le origini degli Etruschi: una questione dibattuta sin dall’antichità'', in M. Torelli (ed.), ''Gli Etruschi'' [Catalogo della mostra, Venezia, 2000], Bompiani, Milan, 2000, p. 43–51 (Italian).</ref>

Archaeological evidence does not support the idea of Lydian migration to Etruria.<ref name="Turfa2017" /><ref name="DeGrummond2014" /> The Etruscan civilization's earliest phase, the [[Villanovan culture]], emerged around 900 BC,<ref name="Neri">{{cite book |author=Diana Neri |title=Gli etruschi tra VIII e VII secolo a.C. nel territorio di Castelfranco Emilia (MO) |publisher=All'Insegna del Giglio |year=2012 |isbn=978-8878145337 |location=Florence |page=9 |language=it |chapter=1.1 Il periodo villanoviano nell’Emilia occidentale |quote=Il termine “Villanoviano” è entrato nella letteratura archeologica quando, a metà dell ’800, il conte Gozzadini mise in luce le prime tombe ad incinerazione nella sua proprietà di Villanova di Castenaso, in località Caselle (BO). La cultura villanoviana coincide con il periodo più antico della civiltà etrusca, in particolare durante i secoli IX e VIII a.C. e i termini di Villanoviano I, II e III, utilizzati dagli archeologi per scandire le fasi evolutive, costituiscono partizioni convenzionali della prima età del Ferro}}</ref><ref name="Bartolonivillanoviana">{{cite book |author=Gilda Bartoloni |title=La cultura villanoviana. All'inizio della storia etrusca |publisher=Carocci editore |year=2012 |isbn=9788843022618 |edition=III |location=Rome |language=it |orig-year=2002}}</ref><ref name="Torellicolonna2000">{{cite book |author=Giovanni Colonna |title=Gi Etruschi |publisher=Bompiani |year=2000 |editor=Mario Torelli |location=Milan |pages=25–41 |language=it |chapter=I caratteri originali della civiltà Etrusca |author-link=Giovanni Colonna (archaeologist)}}</ref><ref name="Torellibriquel2000">{{cite book |author=Dominique Briquel |title=Gi Etruschi |publisher=Bompiani |year=2000 |editor=Mario Torelli |location=Milan |pages=43–51 |language=it |chapter=Le origini degli Etruschi: una questione dibattuta fin dall'antichità |author-link=Dominique Briquel}}</ref><ref name="Torellibartoloni2000">{{cite book |author=Gilda Bartoloni |title=Gi Etruschi |publisher=Bompiani |year=2000 |editor=Mario Torelli |location=Milan |pages=53–71 |language=it |chapter=Le origini e la diffusione della cultura villanoviana}}</ref> which itself developed from the previous [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] of Italy in the late [[Bronze Age]].<ref name="Moser1996">{{cite book |last1=Moser |first1=Mary E. |title=Etruscan Italy: Etruscan Influences on the Civilizations of Italy from Antiquity to the Modern Era |publisher=Museum of Art, Brigham Young University |year=1996 |isbn=0842523340 |editor1-last=Hall |editor1-first=John Franklin |editor1-link=John F. Hall |location=Provo, Utah |pages=[https://archive.org/details/etruscanitaly00john/page/29 29- 43] |language=en |chapter=The origins of the Etruscans: new evidence for an old question |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/etruscanitaly00john/page/29 |chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref> This culture has no ties to Asia Minor or the Near East.<ref name="Bartoloni2014">{{cite book |last1=Bartoloni |first1=Gilda |title=" Origines " : percorsi di ricerca sulle identità etniche nell'Italia antica |publisher=École française de Rome |year=2014 |isbn=978-2-7283-1138-5 |series=Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité |volume=126-2 |location=Rome |publication-date=2014 |language=it |chapter=Gli artigiani metallurghi e il processo formativo nelle « Origini » degli Etruschi}}</ref> Linguists have identified an [[Lemnian language|Etruscan-like language]] in a [[Lemnos stele|set of inscriptions]] on [[Lemnos]] island, in the Aegean Sea. Since the [[Etruscan language]] was a [[Paleo-European languages#Paleo-European languages of Italy|Pre-Indo-European language]] and neither Indo-European or Semitic,<ref name="Bonfante2002">{{cite book |last1=Bonfante |first1=Giuliano |title=The Etruscan language: an introduction |last2=Bonfante |first2=Larissa |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=2002 |edition=2nd |location=Manchester, UK |page=50 |language=en |author-link1=Giuliano Bonfante |author-link2=Larissa Bonfante}}</ref> Etruscan was not related to [[Lydian language|Lydian]], which was a part of the [[Anatolian language|Anatolian]] branch of the Indo-European languages.<ref name="Bonfante2002" /> Instead, Etruscan language is considered part of the pre-Indo-European [[Tyrrhenian language family]], along with the [[Lemnian language|Lemnian]] and [[Rhaetian language]].<ref name="Rix2004">{{cite book |last1=Rix |first1=Helmut |title=The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2004 |isbn=9780521562560 |editor1-last=Woodard |editor1-first=Roger D. |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=943–966 |language=en |chapter=Etruscan |author-link1=Helmut Rix}}</ref>

A 2013 genetic study suggested that the maternal lineages of western Anatolians and modern Tuscans had been largely separate for 5,000 to 10,000 years, with Etruscan [[mitochondrial DNA|mtDNA]] closely resembling modern Tuscans and Neolithic [[Central Europe]]an populations. This suggests Etruscans descended from the [[Villanovan culture]],<ref name="plosone.org">{{cite journal |author=Silvia Ghirotto |author2=Francesca Tassi |author3=Erica Fumagalli |author4=Vincenza Colonna |author5=Anna Sandionigi |author6=Martina Lari |author7=Stefania Vai |author8=Emmanuele Petiti |author9=Giorgio Corti |author10=Ermanno Rizzi |author11=Gianluca De Bellis |author12=David Caramelli |author13=Guido Barbujani |date=6 February 2013 |title=Origins and Evolution of the Etruscans' mtDNA |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=e55519 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...855519G |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519 |pmc=3566088 |pmid=23405165 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Tassi2013">{{cite journal |author=Francesca Tassi |author2=Silvia Ghirotto |author3=David Caramelli |author4=Guido Barbujani |display-authors=etal |date=2013 |title=Genetic evidence does not support an Etruscan origin in Anatolia. |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=152 |issue=1 |pages=11–18 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.22319 |pmid=23900768}}</ref> indicating their indigenous roots, and a link between Etruria, modern Tuscany, and Lydia dating back to the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic period]] during the migration of [[Early European Farmers]] from Anatolia to Europe.<ref name="plosone.org" /><ref name="Tassi2013" /> A 2019 genetic study revealed that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] (900–500 BC) from [[Latium vetus]] shared genetic similarities, with both groups having a mixture of two-thirds [[Copper Age]] ancestry and one-third [[Steppe-related ancestry]]. This study also suggested indigenous origins for the Etruscans, despite their pre-Indo-European language.<ref name="Antonio2019">{{cite journal |last1=Antonio |first1=Margaret L. |last2=Gao |first2=Ziyue |last3=M. Moots |first3=Hannah |year=2019 |title=Ancient Rome: A genetic crossroads of Europe and the Mediterranean |journal=Science |language=en |location=Washington D.C. |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |publication-date=November 8, 2019 |volume=366 |issue=6466 |pages=708–714 |bibcode=2019Sci...366..708A |doi=10.1126/science.aay6826 |pmc=7093155 |pmid=31699931 |quote=Interestingly, although Iron Age individuals were sampled from both Etruscan (n=3) and Latin (n=6) contexts, we did not detect any significant differences between the two groups with f4 statistics in the form of f4(RMPR_Etruscan, RMPR_Latin; test population, Onge), suggesting shared origins or extensive genetic exchange between them. |hdl-access=free |hdl=2318/1715466}}</ref>

A 2021 study confirmed these findings, showing that Etruscans and Latins in the Iron Age had similar genetic profiles and were part of the European cluster. The Etruscan DNA was completely absent a signal of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Etruscans exhibited a blend of WHG, EEF, and Steppe ancestry, with 75% of males belonging to [[Haplogroup R1b#R1b1a1b (R-M269)|haplogroup R1b]] and the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup being [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]].<ref name="Posth2021">{{cite journal |last1=Posth |first1=Cosimo |last2=Zaro |first2=Valentina |last3=Spyrou |first3=Maria A. |date=September 24, 2021 |title=The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect |journal=[[Science Advances]] |language=English |location=Washington DC |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |volume=7 |issue=39 |pages=eabi7673 |bibcode=2021SciA....7.7673P |doi=10.1126/sciadv.abi7673 |pmc=8462907 |pmid=34559560}}</ref>