After these early Etruscans settled in northern and eastern Italy, their gene pool remained relatively stable - across both the Iron Age and the absorption of the Etruscan civilization into the Roman Republic. In fact, the ancestry of both groups points to people who first arrived in the region from the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the Bronze Age.

30 of the world's most valuable treasures that are still missingĪfter comparing DNA from those 82 individuals with that of other ancient and modern peoples, the scientists discovered that despite the strong differences in customs and language, the Etruscans and their Latin neighbors shared a genetic profile with each other. The 25 most mysterious archaeological finds on Earth To resolve this, the scientists collected ancient genomic information from the remains of 82 individuals who lived between 2,800 and 1,000 years ago across 12 archaeological sites in central and southern Italy. While recent archaeological evidence, which shows little evidence of migration, has been tilting in favor of Halicarnassus’ argument, 'a lack of ancient DNA from the region has made genetic investigations inconsistent,' the study researchers said in the statement. Another Greek historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, countered that the pre-Roman civilization, despite their Greek customs and non-Indo-European language, were natives of the Italian peninsula.

The ancient Greek writer Herodotus (widely considered to be the first historian) believed that the Etruscans descended from Anatolian and Aegean peoples who fled westward following a famine in what is now western Turkey. However, not much was known about the geographical origins of the Etruscans or their enigmatic, partially-understood language - making them the subject of more than 2,400 years of intense debate.

(Image credit: Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Īrchaeologists have long known that the Etruscans had bequeathed to the later Roman Republic their religious rituals, metalworking, gladiatorial combat and the innovations in architecture and engineering, which transformed Rome from a once crude settlement into a great city. An Etruscan bronze figurine depicting Sleep (Hypnos) and Death (Thanatos) carrying away Sarpedon after he was slain by Patroclus during the Trojan War.

Etruscan Explorers by Warren Dexter