Origins and Evolution of the Etruscans’ mtDNA

Silvia Ghirotto,Guido Barbujani,Emmanuele Petiti,Stefania Vai,Anna Sandionigi,Ermanno Rizzi,Francesca Tassi,Gianluca De Bellis,Erica Fumagalli,Giorgio Corti,Martina Lari,Vincenza Colonna,David Caramelli

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055519

Abstract

The Etruscan culture is documented in Etruria, Central Italy, from the 8th to the 1st century BC. For more than 2,000 years there has been disagreement on the Etruscans’ biological origins, whether local or in Anatolia. Genetic affinities with both Tuscan and Anatolian populations have been reported, but so far all attempts have failed to fit the Etruscans’ and modern populations in the same genealogy. We extracted and typed the hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA of 14 individuals buried in two Etruscan necropoleis, analyzing them along with other Etruscan and Medieval samples, and 4,910 contemporary individuals from the Mediterranean basin. Comparing ancient (30 Etruscans, 27 Medieval individuals) and modern DNA sequences (370 Tuscans), with the results of millions of computer simulations, we show that the Etruscans can be considered ancestral, with a high degree of confidence, to the current inhabitants of Casentino and Volterra, but not to the general contemporary population of the former Etruscan homeland. By further considering two Anatolian samples (35 and 123 individuals) we could estimate that the genetic links between Tuscany and Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan culture developed locally, and not as an immediate consequence of immigration from the Eastern Mediterranean shores.

Highlights

IntroductionThe Etruscan culture is documented in Central Italy (current Tuscany and Northern Latium, formerly known as Etruria) between the 8th and the 1st century BC
The Etruscan culture is documented in Central Italy between the 8th and the 1st century BC
We identified the model best fitting each set of the observed data, and we moved to estimating, under an isolation-with-migration (IM) framework, the separation time between Tuscan and Anatolian populations [11], evaluating whether the estimated time can be reconciled with an Etruscan origin in Anatolia and a subsequent migration in Italy around the 8th century BC

Summary

Introduction

The Etruscan culture is documented in Central Italy (current Tuscany and Northern Latium, formerly known as Etruria) between the 8th and the 1st century BC. Assuming reasonable effects of genetic drift and mutation, these levels of resemblance proved incompatible with the notion that modern Tuscans are descended from Etruscan ancestors [4,5]. Explanations for this result include the (extreme) possibility that the Etruscans became extinct, and that their modern descendants are few and geographically dispersed, or that the ancient sample studied represents a small social elite rather than the entire population [4]. As for the Etruscans’ origins, ancient DNA is of little use, because preEtruscan dwellers of Central Italy, of the Villanovan culture, cremated their dead [1], and their genetic features are unknown. The claim that systematic errors in the Etruscan DNA sequences led to flawed genealogical inference [2,7] is not supported by careful reanalysis of the data [8]

Methods

Results

Conclusion