Etruscan origins



There are two main hypotheses as to the origins of the Etruscan civilization in the Early Iron Age: autochthonous development in situ out of the Villanovan culture, or oriental (Anatolian) colonization of Italy.

The classification of the Etruscan language in the Tyrsenian family reflects this ambiguity. Etruscan is on one hand cognate to the Rhaetic language spoken in the Alps north of Etruria, suggesting autochthonous connections, but on the other hand the Lemnian language found on the "Lemnos stele" is closely related to Etruscan, entailing either Etruscan presence in "Tyrsenian" Lemnos, or "Tyrsenian" expansion westward to Etruria.

The Etruscan language was of a different family from that of neighbouring Italic and Celtic peoples, who spoke Indo-European languages.

Autochthonous origin
Dionysius of Halicarnassus asserted:

With this passage Dionysius launched the autochthonous theory, that the core element of the Etruscans, who spoke the Etruscan language, were of "Terra (Earth) itself"; that is, on location for so long that they appeared to be the original or native inhabitants. They are therefore the owners of the Villanovan culture.

Picking up this theme, Bonfante (2002) states:

An additional elaboration conjectures that the Etruscans were

In 1942 the Italian historian Massimo Pallottino published a book entitled The Etruscans (which would be released in English in 1955). Pallottino presented various hypotheses which gained wide acceptance in the archeological community. He said "no one would dream of asking where Italians or Frenchmen came from originally; it is the formation of the Italian and French nations that we study." He meant that the formation process for Etruscan civilization took place in the Etruria or nearby. Formulating a different point of view on the same evidence, Pallottino says:

Anatolian origin
Certain Greek and Roman authors saw the presence of the Etruscans in Italy as an "historical problem," since they differed from the other ethnic groups in the area.

Herodotus records the legend that the Etruscans (known to the Greeks as Tyrrhenians) came from Lydia in Asia Minor, modern Turkey :

However Greek Historian Halicarnassus objected that the Tyrrhenian (Etruscan) culture and language shared nothing with the Lydian. He stated:

Etruscan origins and the "Sea peoples"
The Etruscans or Tyrrhenians may have been one of the sea peoples of the 13th-14th century BC. There is no evidence that has been uncovered yet to settle the enigmatic Italian connections of these Sea Peoples to the Etruscans. The Etruscans, Rasna, does not lend itself to the Tyrrhenian derivation. Assertions in various articles and books that the Sherdens definitely were or were not from Sardis or some ancestor state have no foundation in the evidence. The Etruscan civilization has been studied, and the language partly deciphered. It has variants and representatives in Aegean inscriptions, but these may well be from travellers or colonists of Etruscans during their seafaring period before Rome destroyed their political and military power. In the 6th to 5th centuries B.C., the world "Tyrrhenians" was referred specifically to the Etruscans, for whom the Tyrrhenian Sea is named, according to Strabo. In Pindar, the Tyrsanoi appear grouped with the Carthaginians as a threat to Magna Graecia:

Thucydides mentions them together with the Pelasgians and associates them with Lemnian pirates and with the pre-Greek population of Attica. Lemnos remained relatively free of Greek influence up to Hellenistic times, and interestingly, the Lemnos stele of the sixth century BC is inscribed with a language very similar to Etruscan. This has led to the postulation of a "Tyrrhenian language group" comprising Etruscan, Lemnian and Raetic. There is thus evidence that there was indeed at least a linguistic relationship between the Lemnians and the Etruscans. The circumstances of this are disputed; a majority of scholars, at least in Italy, would ascribe Aegean Tyrrhenians to the Etruscan expansion from the 8th to 6th centuries, putting the homeland of the Etruscans in Italy and the Alps particularly because of their relation to the Alpine Raetic population. Adherents of this latter school of thought point to the legend of Lydian origin of the Etruscans referred to by Herodotus, and the statement of Livy that the Raetians were Etruscans driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls. Critics of this theory point to the very scanty evidence of a linguistic relationship of Etruscan with Indo-European, let alone Anatolian in particular, and to Dionysius of Halicarnassus who decidedly argues against an Etruscan-Lydian relationship. However, the Indo-European Lydian language is first attested some time after the Tyrrhenian migrants are said to have left for Italy.

Genetic evidence
A team of geneticists from Italy and Spain undertook the first genetic studies of the ancient Etruscans, based on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from 80 bone samples taken from tombs dating from the seventh century to the third century BC in Etruria. This study found that they were more related to each other than to the general population of modern Italy. Hans-Jürgen Bandelt expressed concern about possible contamination, saying "it is unclear to what extent the “Etruscan” data represent severely damaged or partly contaminated mtDNA sequences; therefore, any comparison with modern population data must be considered quite hazardous." Recent studies suggested a Near East origin.

The studies showed that the areas of historical Etruscan occupation share a relatively high concentration of y-haplogroup G with Anatolians, and the people of Caucasus, where the haplogroup reaches its greatest presence, particularly amongst the Ossetians and Georgians. This evidence is not specific to any period or calendar date, and might reflect contiguous populations or significant migration far back in the Stone Age.

Another team of Italian researchers showed that the mtDNA of cattle (Bos taurus) in modern Tuscany is different from that of cattle normally found elsewhere in Italy, and even in Europe as a whole. The mtDNA is similar to that of cattle typically found in the Near East. Many tribes who have migrated in the past have typically taken their livestock with them as they moved. This bovine mtDNA study suggests that at least some people whose descendants were Etruscans made their way to Italy from Anatolia or other parts of the Near East. However, the study gives no clue as to when they might have done so. There is the possibility that Etruscan civilization arose locally with maritime contacts from all across the Mediterranean, and the genetic presence could have been all along since the Neolithic and the expansion of the seaborne Cardium Pottery cultures of same origin.

Another study by geneticist Alberto Piazza of the University of Turin linked the Etruscans to Turkey. The team compared DNA sequences with those from men in modern Turkey, northern Italy, the Greek island of Lemnos, the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia and the southern Balkans. They found that the genetic sequences of the Tuscan men varied significantly from those of men in surrounding regions in Italy, and that the men from Murlo and Volterra were the most closely related to men from Turkey. In Murlo in particular, one genetic variant is shared only by people from Turkey.

It has been suggested that, should the link to the Turkey prove to be correct, that the Etruscans originated from the Hittite Empire. As this empire was split at the height of its powers rather than at its nadir, it is entirely possible that a large number of Hittites migrated to Italy and formed their own kingdom. This hypothesis presents a paradox in that since the Hittites were an Indo-European people speaking an Indo-European language, then it would also imply that the Estruscans were also Indo-European and should therefore have spoken an Indo-European language. However, the Etruscan language has, to date, been considered to be a non-Indo-European Language.