Ancient DNA from Etruscan Tombs and Beyond: A Case Study from San Giuliano

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Ever since the Etruscans disappeared, their origins have been heavily discussed and debated and several hypotheses have been put forward that utilizes their language and culture as a source. Recently DNA have been use to try and solve this mystery. Modern DNA in conjunction with ancient mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has been used to try an answer this. Because of the limitations of mtDNA, single genetic marker, no consensus has been reached. Did the Etruscans have a local Italian origin or did they have an ancestry from further afield such as Anatolia? To seek an answer to the question of the Etruscan origins, we have investigated archaeological samples from San Giuliano, a site situated in southern Etruria (northern Lazio, Italy), once the heartland of the Etruscan city-states. This site has been inhabited for millennia, from before the Etruscan civilization emerged until the High Middle Ages when the site was abandoned. Ancient DNA has been extracted from 25 individuals focusing on the Etruscans but also on individuals who lived at the site before and after. Using shotgun sequencing, we are looking at questions like the Etruscan origin and kinship among and between the Etruscans and their surroundings both in time and space.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Etruscan Centralization to Medieval Marginalization: Shifts in Settlement and Mortuary Traditions at San Giuliano, Italy

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32455