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Posth C, Zaro V, Spyrou MA, Vai S, Gnecchi-Ruscone GA, Modi A, Peltzer A, Mötsch A, Nägele K, Vågene ÅJ, Nelson EA, Radzevičiūtė R, Freund C, Bondioli LM, Cappuccini L, Frenzel H, Pacciani E, Boschin F, Capecchi G, Martini I, Moroni A, Ricci S, Sperduti A, Turchetti MA, Riga A, Zavattaro M, Zifferero A, Heyne HO, Fernández-Domínguez E, Kroonen GJ, McCormick M, Haak W, Lari M, Barbujani G, Bondioli L, Bos KI, Caramelli D, Krause J. The origin and legacy of the Etruscans through a 2000-year archeogenomic time transect. Sci Adv 2021; 7:eabi7673. [PMID: 34559560 PMCID: PMC8462907 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7673] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cosimo Posth
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72074, Germany
- Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72074, Germany
| | - Valentina Zaro
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Maria A. Spyrou
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences, Archaeo- and Palaeogenetics, University of Tübingen, Tübingen 72074, Germany
| | - Stefania Vai
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Guido A. Gnecchi-Ruscone
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Alessandra Modi
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Alexander Peltzer
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Angela Mötsch
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Kathrin Nägele
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Åshild J. Vågene
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 1350, Denmark
| | - Elizabeth A. Nelson
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
| | - Rita Radzevičiūtė
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Cäcilia Freund
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | | | - Luca Cappuccini
- Department of History, Archeology, Geography, Art and Entertainment, University of Florence, Firenze 50121, Italy
| | - Hannah Frenzel
- Anatomy Institute, University of Leipzig, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Elsa Pacciani
- Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Firenze, Pistoia and Prato, Italy
| | - Francesco Boschin
- Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Research Unit Prehistory and Anthropology, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Giulia Capecchi
- Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Research Unit Prehistory and Anthropology, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Ivan Martini
- Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Adriana Moroni
- Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Research Unit Prehistory and Anthropology, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Stefano Ricci
- Department of Physical Sciences, Earth and Environment, Research Unit Prehistory and Anthropology, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Alessandra Sperduti
- Bioarchaeology Service, Museum of Civilizations, Rome 00144, Italy
- Asia, Africa and Mediterranean Department, University of Naples, Naples 80134, Italy
| | | | - Alessandro Riga
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Monica Zavattaro
- Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology, Museum System of the University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Andrea Zifferero
- Department of History and Cultural Heritage, University of Siena, Siena 53100, Italy
| | - Henrike O. Heyne
- Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), Helsinki, Finland
- Program for Medical and Population Genetics/Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
| | | | - Guus J. Kroonen
- Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen 2300, Denmark
- Leiden University Center for Linguistics, Leiden 2311 BE, Netherlands
| | - Michael McCormick
- Initiative for the Science of the Human Past, Department of History-Max Planck Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
| | - Wolfgang Haak
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - Martina Lari
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Guido Barbujani
- Department of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara 44121, Italy
| | - Luca Bondioli
- Bioarchaeology Service, Museum of Civilizations, Rome 00144, Italy
- Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Padua, Padua 35139, Italy
| | - Kirsten I. Bos
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
| | - David Caramelli
- Department of Biology, University of Florence, Florence 50122, Italy
| | - Johannes Krause
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena 07745, Germany
- Department of Archaeogenetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig 04103, Germany
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