THE Etruscans were native to the Italian peninsula, contrary to Ancient Roman prejudices that the Etruscans were barbarians from Asia Minor.
Using DNA fingerprinting, archaeo-geneticists have determined that the Etruscans are more closely related to other Italian peoples than they are to those in modern-day Turkey, former Asia Minor.
In fact, they are genetically identical with the Romans themselves, which would be a slap in the face to any Patrician in Ancient Rome.
The Roman view was that the Etruscans were interlopers who arrived on the shores of the Italian peninsula and had to be crushed by noble Romans.
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 all attempts have failed to fit the Etruscans' and modern populations in the same genealogy ... until now.
Now a team of scientists led by Guido Barbujani, a geneticist at the University of Ferrara, and David Caramelli, anthropologist with University of Florence, have solved the 2,000-year-old mystery of the origin of the Etruscans.
They extracted and typed the hypervariable region of mitochondrial DNA of 14 individuals buried in two Etruscan cemeteries, 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, the scientists showed that the Etruscans can be considered ancestral, with a high degree of confidence, to the current inhabitants of Casentino and Volterra.
But they are not the ancestors of the contemporary population of Asia Minor.
They determined that the genetic links between Tuscany and Anatolia went off in different directions at least 5,000 years ago, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan culture developed locally on the Italian peninsula, and not as an immediate consequence of immigration from the Eastern Mediterranean shores.
THE ETRUSCANS BUILT PYRAMIDS?
ARCHAEOLOGISTS SAY YES!
ETRUSCAN pyramids have been located underneath a wine cellar in the city of
Orvieto in central Italy, according to a team of U.S. and Italian
archaeologists.
Carved into the rock of the tufa plateau --a sedimentary area that is a
result of volcanic activity -- on which the city stands, the
subterranean structures were largely filled.
Only the top-most modern
layer was visible.
"Within this upper section, which had been modified in modern times
and was used as a wine cellar, we noticed a series of ancient stairs
carved into the wall. They were clearly of Etruscan construction," David
B. George of the Department of Classics at Saint Anselm, told Discovery
News.
As they started digging, George and co-director of the excavation
Claudio Bizzarri of the Parco Archeologico Ambientale dell'Orvietano
noted that the cave's walls were tapered up in a pyramidal fashion.
Intriguingly, a series of tunnels, again of Etruscan construction, ran
underneath the wine cellar hinting to the possibility of deeper
undiscovered structures below.
After going through a mid-20th century floor, George and Bizzarri
reached a medieval floor. Immediately beneath this floor, they found a
layer of fill that contained various artifacts such as Attic red figure
pottery from the middle of the 5th Century B.C., 6th and 5th century
B.C. Etruscan pottery with inscriptions as well as various objects that
dated to before 1000 B.C.
Digging through this layer, the archaeologists found 5 feet of gray
sterile fill, which was intentionally deposited from a hole in the top
of the structure.
"Below that material there was a brown layer that we are currently
excavating. Intriguingly, the stone carved stairs run down the wall as
we continue digging. We still don't know where they are going to take
us," Bizzarri told Discovery News.
The material from the deepest level reached so far (the archaeologists
have pushed down about 10 feet) dates to around the middle of the fifth
century B.C.
"At this level we found a tunnel running to another pyramidal
structure and dating from before the 5th century B.C. which adds to the
mystery," George said.
Indeed, the Etruscans have long been considered one of antiquity's greatest enigmas.
A fun-loving and eclectic people who among other things taught the
French how to make wine, the Romans how to build roads, and introduced
the art of writing to Europe, the Etruscans began to flourish in Etruria
(an area in central Italy area that covered now are Tuscany, Latium,
Emilia-Romagna and Umbria) around 900 B.C., and then dominated much of
the country for five centuries.
Known for their art, agriculture, fine metalworking and commerce, they
started to decline during the fifth century B.C., as the Romans grew in
power. By 300-100 B.C., they eventually became absorbed into the Roman
empire.
Their puzzling, non-Indo-European language was virtually extinguished
and they left no literature to document their society. Indeed, much of
what we know about them comes from their cemeteries: only the richly
decorated tombs they left behind have provided clues to fully
reconstruct their history.
The subterranean pyramids in Orvieto could offer a unique insight into
this civilization as the structures appear to be unique.
"The caves have indeed a shape unknown elsewhere in Etruria," Larissa
Bonfante, professor emerita of classics at New York University and a
leading expert on the ancient Etruscans, told Discovery News.
According to Bizzarri, there are at least five Etruscan pyramids under
the city. Three of these structures have yet to be excavated.
"Clearly, they are not quarries or cisterns. I would say that there is
nothing like these structures on record anywhere in Italy," Bizzarri
said.
According to George, the underground pyramids could represent some
sort of a religious structure or a tomb. In both cases, it would be a
discovery without precedent.
"Most likely, the answer waits at the bottom. The problem is we don't
really know how much we have to dig to get down there," Bizzarri said.
For all the details, read the original report by Discovery News.
