THEY EXISTED BEFORE ROME
Before the rise of Rome, one of the most powerful empires in world history, the Etruscans ruled in today’s Italy. This civilization, which established developed cities in the 1st millennium BC, advanced in mining and maritime trade, and built magnificent tombs, played an important role in shaping the Roman civilization. There are traces of the Etruscans in many areas, from Roman architecture to religious ceremonies, from political symbols to city culture. However, despite the thousands of years of artifacts and inscriptions they left behind, the origin of these people is still debated.
HERODOT POINTED TO ANATOLIA
One of the most striking accounts of the origin of the Etruscans belongs to the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus, who lived approximately 2,500 years ago. Herodotus wrote that the ancestors of the Etruscans migrated to Italy by sea from the Lydian lands in Anatolia. According to the narrative, some of the Lydians, who experienced a great famine, left their country, headed west and settled in Italy. The idea that the Etruscans may have originated in Anatolia has been discussed through this narrative for centuries. However, the historical accuracy of the migration story told by Herodotus has not been definitively proven.
TURKISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY HAS BEEN SOCIALIZED
The mysterious past of the Etruscans has also been the subject of scientific research in Türkiye. His 262-page work titled A Slice of History: Etruscans deals with the identity, language, migration movements and possible relations of the Etruscans with Anatolian cultures. One of the most striking issues in research supporting the idea that the Etruscans may be related to the Turks was the alphabet similarities. Turkologist İsmail Doğan discussed the similarities between the Etruscan script and the old Turkish script in his work titled “The Source of Etruscan Writing: Turkish (Gokturk) Writing”. Doğan’s approach, which argued that there may be a historical connection based on some letter forms in the two writing systems, caused the discussions on the origin of the Etruscans to be evaluated from the perspective of Turkish history.
THE DNA OF 82 PEOPLE WAS EXAMINED: WAS THE MYSTERY SOLVED?
Modern genetic research has also entered the debate over the origin of the Etruscans. In the international study published in the journal Science Advances in 2021, ancient DNA data of 82 people dating back to a period of approximately 2 thousand years were examined. The research revealed that the Etruscans were genetically very similar to their Latin neighbors, and that there was no obvious genetic trace in the Iron Age communities studied, indicating a recent mass migration from Anatolia. This conclusion weakened Herodotus’ account of the migration from Anatolia as a view explaining the general origin of the Etruscan population. However, it did not eliminate the existence of cultural interaction between Anatolia and Italy.
