The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect

Posth, Cosimo; Zaro, Valentina; Spyrou, Maria A.; Vai, Stefania; Gnecchi-Ruscone, Guido A.; Modi, Alessandra; Peltzer, Alexander; Mötsch, Angela; Nägele, Kathrin; Vågene, Åshild J.; Nelson, Elizabeth A.; Radzevičiūtė, Rita; Freund, Cäcilia; Bondioli, Lorenzo M.; Cappuccini, Luca; Frenzel, Hannah; Pacciani, Elsa; Boschin, Francesco; Capecchi, Giulia; Martini, Ivan; Moroni, Adriana; Ricci, Stefano; Sperduti, Alessandra; Turchetti, Maria Angela; Riga, Alessandro; Zavattaro, Monica; Zifferero, Andrea; Heyne, Henrike O.; Fernández-Domínguez, Eva; Kroonen, Guus J.; McCormick, Michael; Haak, Wolfgang; Lari, Martina; Barbujani, Guido; Bondioli, Luca; Bos, Kirsten I.; Caramelli, David; Krause, Johannes

Abstract

The origin, development, and legacy of the enigmatic Etruscan civilization from the central region of the Italian peninsula known as Etruria have been debated for centuries. Here we report a genomic time transect of 82 individuals spanning almost two millennia (800 BCE to 1000 CE) across Etruria and southern Italy. During the Iron Age, we detect a component of Indo-European–associated steppe ancestry and the lack of recent Anatolian-related admixture among the putative non–Indo-European–speaking Etruscans. Despite comprising diverse individuals of central European, northern African, and Near Eastern ancestry, the local gene pool is largely maintained across the first millennium BCE. This drastically changes during the Roman Imperial period where we report an abrupt population-wide shift to ~50% admixture with eastern Mediterranean ancestry. Last, we identify northern European components appearing in central Italy during the Early Middle Ages, which thus formed the genetic landscape of present-day Italian populations.

Citation

Posth, C., Zaro, V., Spyrou, M. A., Vai, S., Gnecchi-Ruscone, G. A., Modi, A., …Krause, J. (2021). The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect. Science Advances, 7(39), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi7673

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 30, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Sep 24, 2021
• Publication Date: Sep 24, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 4, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 5, 2021
• Journal: Science Advances
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 7
• Issue: 39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi7673
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1229266