The Etuscans

[InsaneApache]

Genetic research made public at the weekend appears to put the matter beyond doubt, however. It shows the Etruscans came from the area which is now Turkey - and that the nearest genetic relatives of many of today's Tuscans and Umbrians are to be found, not in Italy, but around Izmir.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...105308,00.html

Very interesting stuff.

[Kralizec]

Indeed!

But the latest conclusions may add weight to a rival, apparently more fanciful, theory that links their name to Troy, the "city of towers" and a part of the Lydian empire. The most likely date for the fall of Troy, as described by Homer, is between 1250 and 1200 BC.

The Romans had a myth about their supposed descendence from Aeneas and other Trojan refugees, adopted from the Etruscans maybe?

[IrishArmenian]

Indeed!



The Romans had a myth about their supposed descendence from Aeneas and other Trojan refugees, adopted from the Etruscans maybe?

Definitley a possibility, good thinking, Kraz.

[Incongruous]

Indeed!



The Romans had a myth about their supposed descendence from Aeneas and other Trojan refugees, adopted from the Etruscans maybe?

Ha! Brilliant man! Brilliant!

[macsen rufus]

Thanks for flagging that up, IA, a nice find

It's a question I've been pondering a while, and had just about come to the clonclusion that the Etruscans were actually relict non-Indo-Europeans of the West Mediterranean group, and that the whole Tyrrhenus story was fanciful claptrap. How wrong I was

But it certainly would be consistent with the Romans' Aenean myth as well. I wonder if it will get us any closer to deciphering the rest of the language, as it seems then it should be a variant of Luwian.

[KARTLOS]

It's a question I've been pondering a while, and had just about come to the clonclusion that the Etruscans were actually relict non-Indo-Europeans of the West Mediterranean group, and that the whole Tyrrhenus story was fanciful claptrap. How wrong I was

what do you mean by non-indo-european?

linguistically speaking they were almost certainly not of the indo-european family.

had you been thinking they were akin to the basques.

this seems like a reasonably good study. ive done work in this area myself. it doesnt sound like they used dna from any ancinet remains which would hae been more conclusive.

the population transfer could theoretically have been in the reverse direction, but these results are at least consistent with ancient accounts.

[macsen rufus]

Hi Kartlos - yes, the theory I'd been favouring til this latest info was that the Etruscans had come from the West Med / Iberian group, so yes, that would have made them related to the Basques. It's been clear that the language wasn't IE for quite a while, but being undeciphered, deciding whether it had come from east or west was problematic. But as everyone and his dog claimed descent from the Trojans, it was something I took with a pinch of salt. But the DNA seems pretty conclusive, so long as we can discount later migrations, of course.