Editing Etruscan civilization (section)

===Origins===
{{Main|Etruscan origins}}

====Ancient sources====
[[File:Exekias Dionysos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 2044.jpg|thumb|The [[Dionysus Cup]], a {{Lang|grc|[[kylix]]}} painted by the Athenian [[Exekias]] ca. 530&nbsp;BCE, showing the narrative of Dionysus's capture by Tyrrhenian pirates and transfiguration of them into dolphins in the seventh ''Homeric Hymn''{{Sfn|Strauss Clay|2016|pp=32–34}}]]
[[File:Urna cineraria biconica con coperchio a elmo crestato, da pozzo cinerario a monterozzi, loc. forse fontanaccia.jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Biconical cinerary urn with crest-shaped helmet lid, 9th–8th century BC, from Monterozzi (Fontanaccia), [[Tarquinia]], [[Tarquinia National Museum|Museo archeologico nazionale]]]]
[[File:Urne cinéraire imitant une habitation traditionnelle. Attribuée à l'atelier de Vulci (Etrurie). Impasto et plaque de bronze découpée. 8e siècle av. J.-C..jpg|thumb|upright=.7|Urn in the shape of a hut, which represents the typical Etruscan house of the Villanovan phase, 8th century BC, from [[Vulci]], [[Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva)|Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève]]]]
[[File:Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols Bolsena Italy 700 BCE to 650 BCE.jpg|thumb|right|[[Etruscan art|Etruscan]] pendant with a large equilateral cross of concentric circles flanked by four small right-facing [[swastika]]s among its symbols from [[Bolsena]], [[Italy]], 700–650&nbsp;BC. [[Louvre]]]]

Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about the origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were [[Pelasgians]] who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy.

The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called [[Tyrrhenians]], was the 8th-century BC poet [[Hesiod]] in his work the [[Theogony]]. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins.<ref>Hesiod, ''Theogony'' 1015.</ref> The 7th-century BC ''Homeric Hymn'' to Dionysus<ref>Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, 7.7–8</ref> referred to them as pirates.<ref name=Brown545560>John Pairman Brown, ''Israel and Hellas'', Vol. 2 (2000) p. 211</ref> Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east and did not associate them with the Pelasgians.

It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks" respectively.<ref>[[Strabo]]. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Geography]''. Book VI, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University. [https://web.archive.org/web/20220902170714/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Archived] from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.</ref> The 5th-century BC historians [[Herodotus]],<ref>6.137</ref> and [[Thucydides]]<ref>4.109</ref> and the 1st-century BC historian [[Strabo]],<ref name="5.2, citing Anticlides">[[Strabo]]. ''[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+5.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Geography]''. Book V, Chapter II. Perseus Digital Library. Tufts University.[https://web.archive.org/web/20220902165216/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Strab.+5.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Archived] from the original on 2 September 2022. Retrieved 2 September 2022.</ref> did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from [[Lydia]] by way of the Greek island of [[Lemnos]]. They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" ({{lang|grc|τὸ δὲ πλεῖστον Πελασγικόν, τῶν καὶ Λῆμνόν ποτε καὶ Ἀθήνας Τυρσηνῶν}}). As Strabo and Herodotus told it,<ref name="1.94">1.94</ref> the migration to Lemnos was led by [[Tyrrhenus]] / Tyrsenos, the son of [[Atys of Lydia|Atys]] (who was king of Lydia). Strabo<ref name="5.2, citing Anticlides" /> added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and [[Imbros]] then followed Tyrrhenus to the [[Italian Peninsula]]. According to the logographer [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]], there was a Pelasgian migration from [[Thessaly]] in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=1.28–3}}</ref>

There is some evidence suggesting a link between Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The [[Lemnos stele]] bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans.<ref name=Morritt545560>{{cite book |first=Robert D. |last=Morritt |title=Stones that Speak |year=2010 |page=272}}</ref> The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "[[Tyrsenian languages|Tyrrhenian language group]]" consisting of Etruscan, Lemnian, and the [[Raetic language|Raetic]] spoken in the [[Alps]].

But the 1st-century BC historian [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians.<ref name=Dionysius>{{cite book |author=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |author-link=Dionysius of Halicarnassus |title=Roman Antiquities |at=Book I, Chapters 30 1}}</ref> Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian [[Xanthus of Lydia]], who was originally from [[Sardis]] and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians.<ref name=Dionysius/>

{{blockquote|For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living.}}

The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the [[endonym]] of the Etruscans: Rasenna.

{{blockquote|The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci, but formerly, with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyrscoï [an earlier form of Tusci]. Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their leaders, Rasenna.}}

Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian [[Livy]], in his ''[[Ab Urbe Condita Libri]]'', said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin.<ref>{{cite book |first=Titus |last=Livius |author-link=Livy |title=Ab Urbe Condita Libri |trans-title=The History of Rome |at=Book 5|title-link=Ab Urbe Condita Libri }}</ref>

{{blockquote|The Alpine tribes have also, no doubt, the same origin (of the Etruscans), especially the Raetians; who have been rendered so savage by the very nature of the country as to retain nothing of their ancient character save the sound of their speech, and even that is corrupted.}}

The first-century historian [[Pliny the Elder]] also put the Etruscans in the context of the [[Rhaetian people]] to the north, and wrote in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'' (AD&nbsp;79):<ref>{{cite book |last1=Plinius Secundus |first1= Gaius |title=Naturalis Historia, Liber III, 133 |language=Latin}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Adjoining these the (Alpine) [[Noricum|Noricans]] are the Raeti and [[Vindelici]]. All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the [[Gaul]]s, their leader was named Raetus.|source=}}

====Archeological evidence and modern etruscology====
{{Main|Proto-Villanovan culture|Villanovan culture}}
[[File:Bronze chariot inlaid with ivory MET DP137936.jpg|thumb|[[Monteleone chariot]], one of the world's great archaeological finds, 2nd quarter of the 6th century BC]]
[[File:Putto graziani, con dedica al dio tec sans, da sanguineto al trasimeno, 200-150 ac ca..JPG|thumb|upright=.7|Putto Graziani, hollow-cast bronze on which is engraved the Etruscan inscription "To the god Tec Sans as a gift" (Tec Sans was the protectress of childhood), 3-2nd century BC, [[Rome]], [[Vatican Museums|Museo Gregoriano Etrusco]]]]
[[File:Museo guarnacci, urna degli sposi, I sec. ac. 01.JPG|thumb|right|Sarcophagus of the Spouses, about 1st century BC, [[Volterra]], Museo etrusco Guarnacci]]

The question of the Etruscans' origins has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an autochthonous origin of the Etruscans.<ref name=Barker/><ref name=DeGrummond2014/><ref name=Turfa2017/><ref name=Shipley2017/><ref name=Benelli2021/> There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria.<ref name=Wallace2010>{{cite book |last1=Wallace |first1= Rex E.|author-link1=Rex E. Wallace |year=2010 |chapter=Italy, Languages of |editor1-last=Gagarin |editor1-first=Michael |title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome |language=English |location=Oxford, UK |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=97–102 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195170726.001.0001 |isbn=9780195170726|quote=Etruscan origins lie in the distant past. Despite the claim by Herodotus, who wrote that Etruscans migrated to Italy from Lydia in the eastern Mediterranean, there is no material or linguistic evidence to support this. Etruscan material culture developed in an unbroken chain from Bronze Age antecedents. As for linguistic relationships, Lydian is an Indo-European language. Lemnian, which is attested by a few inscriptions discovered near Kamania on the island of Lemnos, was a dialect of Etruscan introduced to the island by commercial adventurers. Linguistic similarities connecting Etruscan with Raetic, a language spoken in the sub-Alpine regions of northeastern Italy, further militate against the idea of eastern origins. |mode= }}</ref><ref name=Turfa2017/><ref name=DeGrummond2014/><ref name=Shipley2017/><ref name=Benelli2021/> Modern [[etruscology|etruscologists]] and archeologists, such as [[Massimo Pallottino]] (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless.<ref name=Pallottino1947>{{cite book |last1=Pallottino |first1=Massimo |author-link1=Massimo Pallottino |title=L'origine degli Etruschi |language=it |location= Rome|publisher= Tumminelli |date=1947 }}</ref> In 2000, the etruscologist [[Dominique Briquel]] explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek narratives on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents.<ref name=Briquel2000>{{cite book |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |author-link1=Dominique Briquel |year=2000 |chapter=Le origini degli Etruschi: una questione dibattuta sin dall’antichità |editor1-last=Torelli |editor1-first=Mario |editor1-link=Mario Torelli|title= Gli Etruschi|language= it|location=Milan |publisher= Bompiani|pages=43–51 }}</ref> He argues that the ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and because there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks.<ref name=Hornblower2014>{{cite book |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |editor3-last= Eidinow |editor3-first=Esther |title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=0awiBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA292|series=Oxford Companions |language=en |edition=2 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2014 |pages=291–292 |isbn=9780191016752 |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. }}</ref><ref name=Briquel2013>{{cite book |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |year=2013 |chapter=Etruscan Origins and the Ancient Authors |editor1-last=Turfa |editor1-first= Jean|title= The Etruscan World |language=en |location=London and New York |publisher=Routledge Taylor & Francis Group |pages= 36–56|isbn=978-0-415-67308-2 }}</ref> He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration.<ref name=Briquel1990>{{cite journal |last1=Briquel |first1=Dominique |author-link1=Dominique Briquel |year=1990 |title=Le problème des origines étrusques |journal= Lalies |series=Sessions de linguistique et de littérature |language=fr |location=Paris|publisher= Presses de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure|publication-date=1992 |pages=7–35 }}</ref>

Several archaeologists specializing in [[Prehistory]] and [[Protohistory]] who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to [[material culture]] or to [[social practices]], to support a migration theory.<ref name=Bartoloni2014>{{cite book |last1=Bartoloni |first1=Gilda |year=2014 |chapter=Gli artigiani metallurghi e il processo formativo nelle "Origini" degli Etruschi |title=" Origines " : percorsi di ricerca sulle identità etniche nell'Italia antica |series=Mélanges de l'École française de Rome: Antiquité|language=it|volume=126-2 |location=Rome |publisher= École française de Rome|publication-date=2014 |isbn=978-2-7283-1138-5}}</ref> The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in the area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, a Continental European practice derived from the [[Urnfield culture]]; nothing about it suggests an ethnic contribution from [[Asia Minor]] or the [[Near East]].<ref name=Bartoloni2014/>

A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities showed a continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years.<ref name=Bagnasco2012>{{cite book |last1=Bagnasco Gianni |first1=Giovanna |chapter=Origine degli Etruschi |editor1-last=Bartoloni |editor1-first=Gilda |title=Introduzione all'Etruscologia |language=it |location=Milan |publisher=Ulrico Hoepli Editore |pages=47–81 }}</ref> Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during the last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous [[Proto-Villanovan culture]] and that the subsequent Iron Age [[Villanovan culture]] is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization.<ref name=Moser1996/> It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the [[Mycenaeans|Mycenaean world]] at the end of the Bronze Age, but contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of [[Greece]], [[Aegean Sea]] Islands, Asia Minor, and the Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan [[ethnogenesis]] was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the [[Magna Grecia|Greek colonies in Southern Italy]] and [[Phoenician–Punic Sardinia|Phoenician-Punic]] colonies in [[Sardinia]], and the consequent [[orientalizing period]].<ref name=Stoddart>{{cite book |last1=Stoddart |first1=Simon |author-link1=Simon Stoddart |year=1989 |chapter=Divergent trajectories in central Italy 1200–500 BC |editor1-last=Champion |editor1-first=Timothy C. |title=Centre and Periphery – Comparative Studies in Archaeology |language=en |location= London and New York|publisher=Taylor & Francis |publication-date= 2005|pages=89–102 }}</ref>

One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of the past, has been to associate the later [[Orientalizing period]] of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria.<ref name=Burkert1992>{{cite book |last1=Burkert|first1= Walter |year=1992 |title=The Orientalizing Revolution: Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age |series=Enciclopedia del Mediterraneo |language=English |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson}}</ref> The Etruscan orientalizing period was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with the Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations.<ref name=d'agostino2003>{{cite book |last1=d'Agostino|first1= Bruno |year=2003 |chapter=Teorie sull'origine degli Etruschi |title= Gli Etruschi |series=Enciclopedia del Mediterraneo |language=Italian |volume=26 |location=Milan |publisher=Jaca Book |pages=10–19}}</ref> The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to several other civilizations in the central and western Mediterranean up to the [[Iberian Peninsula]]. Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the [[Tomb of the Augurs]], the [[Tomb of the Triclinium]] and the [[Tomb of the Leopards]], as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the [[Monterozzi necropolis]] in [[Tarquinia]], were painted by Greek painters or at least foreign artists. These images have, therefore, a very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population.<ref name=deGrummond2014>{{cite book |last1=de Grummond |first1=Nancy Thomson |year=2014 |chapter=Ethnicity and the Etruscans |title=Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean |language=en |location=Chichester, Uk |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |pages= 413–414 |quote= The facial features, however, are not likely to constitute a true portrait, but rather partake of a formula for representing the male in Etruria in Archaic art. It has been observed that the formula used—with the face in profile, showing almond-shaped eyes, a large nose, and a domed up profile of the top of the head—has its parallels in images from the eastern Mediterranean. But these features may show only artistic conventions and are therefore of limited value for determining ethnicity. }}</ref> It was only from the end of the 4th century BC that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic.<ref name=Bandinelli1984>{{cite book |last1=Bianchi Bandinelli |first1=Ranuccio |author-link1=Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli |year=1984 |chapter=Il problema del ritratto |title=L'arte classica |language=it |location=Roma |publisher= [[Editori Riuniti]]}}</ref>

====Genetic research====
There have been numerous biological studies on the Etruscan origins, the oldest of which dates to the 1950s, when research was still based on blood tests of modern samples and DNA analysis (including the analysis of ancient samples) was not yet possible.<ref name=Ciba1959>{{cite book |last1=A Ciba Foundation Symposium |year=1959 |orig-year=1958 |editor1-last= Wolstenholme|editor1-first= Gordon|editor1-link= Gordon Wolstenholme |editor2-last=O'Connor |editor2-first=Cecilia M.|title=Medical Biology and Etruscan Origins |language= English |location=London |publisher=J & A Churchill Ltd |isbn= 978-0-470-71493-5}}</ref><ref name=Perkins2017>{{cite book |last=Perkins |first=Phil |editor-last=Naso |editor-first=Alessandro |title=Etruscology |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter |date=2017 |pages=109–118 |chapter=Chapter 8: DNA and Etruscan identity |isbn=978-1934078495 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uk8_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 }}</ref><ref name=Perkins2009>{{cite book |last= Perkins |first=Phil |editor-last1=Perkins |editor-first1=Phil|editor-last2=Swaddling |editor-first2=Judith |title=Etruscan by Definition: Papers in Honour of Sybille Haynes|publisher=The British Museum Research Publications |id=173 |location=London |date=2009 |pages=95–111 |chapter=DNA and Etruscan identity |isbn=978-0861591732}}</ref> Only very recently, with the development of [[archaeogenetics]], have comprehensive studies containing the [[whole genome sequencing]] of Etruscan samples been published, including [[autosomal DNA]] and [[Y-DNA]], autosomal DNA being the "most valuable to understand what really happened in an individual's history", as stated by geneticist [[David Reich (geneticist)|David Reich]], whereas previously studies were based only on [[mitochondrial DNA]] analysis, which contains less and limited information.<ref name=Reich2018>{{cite book |last1=Reich |first1=David |author-link1=David Reich (geneticist) |year=2018 |chapter=Ancient DNA Opens the Floodgates |title= Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past |language=English |location= Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=53–59 |isbn=9780198821250 |quote="But mitochondrial DNA only records information on the entirely female line, a tiny fraction of the many tens of thousands of lineages that have contributed to any person’s genome. To understand what really happened in an individual’s history, it is incomparably more valuable to examine all ancestral lineages together."}}</ref>

An archeogenetic study focusing on Etruscan origins was published in September 2021 in the journal ''[[Science Advances]]'' and analyzed the [[autosomal DNA]] and the uniparental markers (Y-DNA and mtDNA) of 48 Iron Age individuals from [[Tuscany]] and [[Lazio]], spanning from 800 to 1 BC and concluded that the Etruscans were autochthonous (locally indigenous) and had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. In the Etruscan individuals the ancestral component [[Steppe-related ancestry|Steppe]] was present in the same percentages as those found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and the Etruscan DNA bore no trace of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Both Etruscans and Latins were firmly part of the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscans were a mixture of WHG, EEF and Steppe ancestry; 75% of the Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to [[Haplogroup R-M269|haplogroup R1b (R1b M269)]], especially its clade [[Haplogroup R-M269#R-P312|R1b-P312]] and its derivative [[Haplogroup R1b-L2|R1b-L2]], whose direct ancestor is [[Haplogroup R-M269#R-U152|R1b-U152]], whilst the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was [[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 |pmid=34559560| doi=10.1126/sciadv.abi7673| pmc=8462907 |bibcode= 2021SciA....7.7673P }}</ref>

The conclusions of the 2021 study are in line with a 2019 study published in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' that analyzed the remains of eleven [[Iron Age]] individuals from the areas around Rome, of whom four were Etruscan, one buried in [[Veio|Veio Grotta Gramiccia]] from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near [[Civitavecchia]] from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]] (900–500 BC) from [[Latium vetus]] were genetically similar,<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 |doi=10.1126/science.aay6826 |pmid=31699931|pmc=7093155|bibcode=2019Sci...366..708A|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=2318/1715466 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> with genetic differences between the examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant.{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|p=3}} The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of {{c.|30%}} [[steppe ancestry]].{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|p=2}} Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds [[Copper Age]] ancestry ([[Early European Farmers|EEF]] + [[Western Hunter-Gatherer|WHG]]; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%) and one-third [[Steppe-related ancestry]] (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%).<ref name=Antonio2019/> The only sample of [[Y-DNA]] belonged to [[Haplogroup J (Y-DNA)|haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283)]], found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried the M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from [[Croatia]] (1631{{ndash}}1531 BC).  The four samples of [[mtDNA]] extracted belonged to haplogroups [[Haplogroup U (mtDNA)#Haplogroup U5|U5a1]], [[Haplogroup H (mtDNA)|H]], [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T2b32]], [[Haplogroup K (mtDNA)|K1a4]].{{sfn|Antonio et al.|2019|loc=Table 2 Sample Information, Rows 33-35}}

Among the older studies, based only on mitochondrial DNA, a mtDNA study, published in 2018 in the [[American Journal of Physical Anthropology]] compared both ancient and modern samples from Tuscany, from [[Prehistory]], the Etruscan age, [[Ancient Rome|Roman age]], [[Renaissance]] and the present day and concluded that the Etruscans appear to be a local population, intermediate between the prehistoric and the other samples, placing them in the temporal network between the [[Eneolithic|Eneolithic Age]] and the Roman Age.<ref name=Leonardi2018>{{cite journal |last1= Leonardi|first1=Michela |last2=Sandionigi |first2=Anna |last3=Conzato |first3=Annalisa |last4=Vai |first4=Stefania |last5=Lari |first5= Martina |year=2018 |title=The female ancestor's tale: Long-term matrilineal continuity in a nonisolated region of Tuscany |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ajpa.23679 |journal= American Journal of Physical Anthropology |language=en |location= New York City|publisher= John Wiley & Sons |publication-date= September 6, 2018|volume=167 |issue=3 |pages=497–506 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.23679 |pmid= 30187463 |s2cid=52161000}}</ref>

A couple of [[mitochondrial DNA]] studies published in 2013 in the journals [[PLOS One]] and [[American Journal of Physical Anthropology]], based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that the Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to be very close to a Neolithic population from [[Central Europe]] ([[Germany]], [[Austria]], [[Hungary]]) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the [[Villanovan culture]], as supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research,<ref name=Moser1996/><ref name=Claassen2004>{{cite journal |last1=Claassen |first1=Horst |last2= Wree |first2= Andreas|year= 2004 |title=The Etruscan skulls of the Rostock anatomical collection – How do they compare with the skeletal findings of the first thousand years B.C.? |url= https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0940960204800323|journal=Annals of Anatomy |language=en |location=Amsterdam |publisher= Elsevier |volume=186 |issue=2 |pages=157–163 |doi=10.1016/S0940-9602(04)80032-3 |pmid=15125046 |quote= Seven Etruscan skulls were found in Corneto Tarquinia in the years 1881 and 1882 and were given as [a] present to Rostock's anatomical collection in 1882. The origin of the Etruscans who were contemporary with the Celts is not yet clear; according to Herodotus they had emigrated from Lydia in Asia Minor to Italy. To fit the Etruscan skulls into an ethnological grid they were compared with skeletal remains of the first thousand years B.C.E. All skulls were found to be male; their age ranged from 20 to 60 years, with an average age of about thirty. A comparison of the median sagittal outlines of the Etruscan skulls and the contemporary Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from North Bavaria showed that the former were shorter and lower. Maximum skull length, minimum frontal breadth, ear bregma height, bizygomatical breadth and orbital breadth of the Etruscan skulls were statistically significantly less developed compared to Hallstatt-Celtics from North Bavaria. In comparison to other contemporary skeletal remains the Etruscan skulls had no similarities in common with Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from North Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg but rather with Hallstatt-Celtic skulls from Hallstatt in Austria. Compared to chronologically adjacent skeletal remains the Etruscan skulls did not show similarities with Early Bronze Age skulls from Moravia but with Latène-Celtic skulls from Manching in South Bavaria. Due to the similarities of the Etruscan skulls with some Celtic skulls from South Bavaria and Austria, it seems more likely that the Etruscans were original inhabitants of Etruria than immigrants.}}</ref> and that genetic links between Tuscany and western [[Anatolia]] date to at least 5,000 years ago during the [[Neolithic]] and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of [[Early European Farmers]] (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) [[Haplogroup JT (mtDNA)|JT]] (subclades of [[Haplogroup J (mtDNA)|J]] and [[Haplogroup T (mtDNA)|T]]) and [[U5b|U5]], with a minority of [[Haplogroup H1 (mtDNA)|mtDNA H1b]].<ref name=Ghirotto2013>{{cite journal|first1=Silvia|last1=Ghirotto|first2=Francesca|last2=Tassi|first3=Erica|last3=Fumagalli|first4=Vincenza|last4=Colonna|first5=Anna|last5=Sandionigi|first6=Martina|last6=Lari|first7=Stefania|last7=Vai|first8=Emmanuele|last8=Petiti|first9=Giorgio|last9=Corti|date=6 February 2013|title=Origins and evolution of the Etruscans' mtDNA|journal=PLOS ONE|volume=8|issue=2|pages=e55519|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519|pmid=23405165|pmc=3566088|first10=Ermanno|last10=Rizzi|first11=Gianluca|last11=De Bellis|first12=David|last12=Caramelli|first13=Guido|last13=Barbujani|df=dmy-all|bibcode=2013PLoSO...855519G|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=Tassi2013>{{cite journal |doi=10.1002/ajpa.22319| journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |title=Genetic evidence does not support an Etruscan origin in Anatolia.|first1=Francesca|last1=Tassi|first2=Silvia|last2=Ghirotto|first3=David|last3=Caramelli| first4=Guido| last4=Barbujani|date=2013|pmid=23900768 | volume=152 | issue= 1| pages= 11–18|display-authors=etal}}</ref>

An mtDNA study published in 2004, based on about 28 samples of individuals who lived from 600 to 100 BC in [[Veneto]], Etruria and Campania, found that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European or [[West Asia]]n but only a few [[haplotype]]s were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among [[German (people)|Germans]] (seven haplotypes in common), the [[Cornwall|Cornish]] from the South West of Britain (five haplotypes in common), the [[Turkish peoples|Turks]] (four haplotypes in common) and the [[Tuscany|Tuscans]] (two haplotypes in common).<ref name=Vernesi2004>{{cite journal |author=C. Vernesi e Altri |title=The Etruscans: A population-genetic study |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |date=March 2004|volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=694–704 |doi=10.1086/383284 |pmid=15015132 |pmc=1181945 }}</ref> The modern populations with the shortest genetic distance from the ancient Etruscans, based solely on mtDNA and FST, were [[Tuscans]] followed by the Turks, other populations from the Mediterranean and the Cornish after.<ref name=Vernesi2004/> This study was much criticized by other geneticists, because "data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences" and "any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous",<ref name=Bandelt2004>{{cite journal |last1= Bandelt |first1= Hans-Jürgen|date= 2004|title= Etruscan artifacts |language=English |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=75 |issue= 5|pages= 919–920 |doi=10.1086/425180 |pmid= 15457405|pmc= 1182123}}</ref><ref name=Bandelt2005>{{cite journal |last1= Bandelt |first1= Hans-Jürgen|date=2005 |title= Mosaics of ancient mitochondrial DNA: positive indicators of nonauthenticity |language=English |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=13|issue= 10|pages= 1106–1112 |doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201476 |pmid= 16077732|s2cid= 19958417 |doi-access= free}}</ref><ref name=Thomas2005>{{cite journal |last1=Gilbert |first1= Marcus Thomas Pius |date=2005 |title= Assessing ancient DNA studies |url=https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/fulltext/S0169-5347(05)00226-0 |language=English |journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution |volume=20|issue=10 |pages= 541–544 |doi=10.1016/j.tree.2005.07.005 |pmid= 16701432}}</ref> and by archaeologists, who argued that the study was not clear-cut and had not provided evidence that the Etruscans were an intrusive population to the European context.<ref name=Perkins2009/><ref name=Perkins2017/>

In the collective volume ''Etruscology'' published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins, echoing an article of his from 2009, provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes, "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that [the] Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".<ref name=Perkins2017/><ref name=Perkins2009/>

In his 2021 book ''A Short History of Humanity'', German geneticist [[Johannes Krause]], codirector of the [[Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History|Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] in [[Jena]], concludes that it is likely that the [[Etruscan language]] (as well as [[Basque language|Basque]], [[Paleo-Sardinian]] and [[Minoan language|Minoan]]) "developed on the continent in the course of the [[Neolithic Europe|Neolithic Revolution]]".<ref name=Krause2020>{{cite book |last1=Krause |first1=Johannes |author-link1=Johannes Krause |last2=Trappe |first2= Thomas |translator-last1= Waight |translator-first1=Caroline |year= 2021 |orig-year= 2019 |title=A Short History of Humanity: A New History of Old Europe |trans-title=Die Reise unserer Gene: Eine Geschichte über uns und unsere Vorfahren |language=English |edition=I |location=New York |publisher=Random House |page=217 |isbn=9780593229422 |quote=It's likely that Basque, Paleo-Sardinian, Minoan, and Etruscan developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution. Sadly, the true diversity of the languages that once existed in Europe will never be known.}}</ref>