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This study on the Ancient Etruscans is a very exciting application of what will most likely take place increasingly in the future: large-scale genetic analysis of ancient DNA samples. See also similar studies on the Guanches and on Ancient Mongolians.
Am. J. Hum. Genet., 74:000, 2004
The Etruscans: A Population-Genetic Study
Cristiano Vernesi et al.
The origins of the Etruscans, a non-Indo-European population of preclassical Italy, are unclear. There is broad agreement that their culture developed locally, but the Etruscans' evolutionary and migrational relationships are largely unknown. In this study, we determined mitochondrial DNA sequences in multiple clones derived from bone samples of 80 Etruscans who lived between the 7th and the 3rd centuries B.C. In the first phase of the study, we eliminated all specimens for which any of nine tests for validation of ancient DNA data raised the suspicion that either degradation or contamination by modern DNA might have occurred. On the basis of data from the remaining 30 individuals, the Etruscans appeared as genetically variable as modern populations. No significant heterogeneity emerged among archaeological sites or time periods, suggesting that different Etruscan communities shared not only a culture but also a mitochondrial gene pool. Genetic distances and sequence comparisons show closer evolutionary relationships with the eastern Mediterranean shores for the Etruscans than for modern Italian populations. All mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscans appear typically European or West Asian, but only a few haplotypes were found to have an exact match in a modern mitochondrial database, raising new questions about the Etruscans' fate after their assimilation into the Roman state.
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To better compare the Etruscan gene pool with those of contemporary Italy, we treated these populations as hybrids among four potential parental populations, from the four corners of the area considered in this study (table 2). The likely contributions of each parental population, or admixture coefficients, are similar for the three modern Italian populations, but Etruscans differ in two aspects: they show closer relationships both to North Africans and to Turks than any contemporary population. In particular, the Turkish component in their gene pool appears three times as large as in the other populations. These admixture estimates are not to be taken at their face value, for numerous assumptions underlie their estimation. Here they only serve to show that, with respect to modern Italian gene pools, the Etruscan one contains an excess of haplotypes suggesting evolutionary ties with the populations of the southern and eastern Mediterranean shores.
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Social structure may have affected these results. All skeletons we typed were found in tombs containing artifacts that could be attributed with confidence to the Etruscan culture. Those tombs typically belong the social elites (Barker and Rasmussen 1998), and so the individuals we studied may represent a specific social group, the upper classes.
Posted by Dienekes at March 11, 2004 01:58 AM | PermaLinkThe problem is that this research concentrates on mitochondrial DNA. It tells us nothing about the Y-chromosomes of the Etruscans and therefore gives an incomplete picture.
Posted by: Xguy at March 11, 2004 11:20 AMRegarding this "Turkish" admixture - do they mean Mongolian (ie the current inhabitants of Asia Minor) or is this another annoying reference to the extinct indigenous peoples of Anatolia as "Turkish"?
Posted by: Sephiroth at March 11, 2004 12:38 PMThe problem is that this research concentrates on mitochondrial DNA. It tells us nothing about the Y-chromosomes of the Etruscans and therefore gives an incomplete picture.
given the general tendency of intruding elites to often take native wives, the probability of exoganous etruscan mtDNA implies exoganous Y lineages. i could be wrong, perhaps some amazing sea-faring race of lady-merchants settled in central italy and married local men....
Posted by: razib at March 11, 2004 03:30 PMAnother annoying reference.
Posted by: Dienekes at March 11, 2004 05:13 PM>> given the general tendency of intruding elites to often take native wives
Elite does not necessarily mean intrusive elite. The intrusive element may be that of the lower classes; or the elite may be formed locally.
Posted by: Dienekes at March 11, 2004 05:19 PMRazib:
given the general tendency of intruding elites to often take native wives, the probability of exoganous etruscan mtDNA implies exoganous Y lineages. i could be wrong, perhaps some amazing sea-faring race of lady-merchants settled in central italy and married local men....
From what I understand it was a common practice in ancient times for men to marry the daughters of the people with whom they traded. It is possible that Etruscan men married women from other parts of the Mediterranean because that was where they conducted their trading activities. Therefore a study of mitochondrial DNA may not provide useful information on the origins of the Etruscans.
Posted by: Xguy at March 15, 2004 07:11 AMThat hinges on two assumptions: (i) that maritime trading was an important economic activity for Etruscans (if e.g., 10% of Etruscans were traders, then they would not have any effect on the overall Etruscan mitochondrial gene pool), and (ii) that Etruscan traders brought women back to Etruria from foreign lands. Both these assumptions are shakey.
Posted by: Dienekes at March 15, 2004 03:52 PM"perhaps some amazing sea-faring race of lady-merchants settled in central italy and married local men"
That's the funniest thing I have heard in years!!
The fact remains that foreign women from various populations were bought/sold and traded by males of every major civilization on earth and it would not be unusual to find African,Asiatic or North Western European mitochondrial DNA among the descendents of a single Etruscan while the paternal lineage is homogenous.
Posted by: Ugarit at April 28, 2004 10:51 AMAncient greek historian Herodotus wrote that Etruscans are from Lydia. He was right after all...
Posted by: Phrygian at April 30, 2004 05:47 PM