Editing Etruscan civilization (section)

====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>