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

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abi7673

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

Authors

Cosimo Posth

Valentina Zaro

Maria A. Spyrou

Stefania Vai

Guido A. Gnecchi-Ruscone

Alessandra Modi

Alexander Peltzer

Angela Mötsch

Kathrin Nägele

Åshild J. Vågene

Elizabeth A. Nelson

Rita Radzevičiūtė

Cäcilia Freund

Lorenzo M. Bondioli

Luca Cappuccini

Hannah Frenzel

Elsa Pacciani

Francesco Boschin

Giulia Capecchi

Ivan Martini

Adriana Moroni

Stefano Ricci

Alessandra Sperduti

Maria Angela Turchetti

Alessandro Riga

Monica Zavattaro

Andrea Zifferero

Henrike O. Heyne

Dr Eva Fernandez Dominguez eva.fernandez@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

Guus J. Kroonen

Michael McCormick

Wolfgang Haak

Martina Lari

Guido Barbujani

Luca Bondioli

Kirsten I. Bos

David Caramelli

Johannes Krause

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

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Copyright © 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).