New DNA analysis suggests that this the mysterious civilization originated from the Italian peninsula. Before the glory of Rome, the Etruscans controlled much of present-day Italy.

Some of the first Roman kings came from Etruria, and the Etruscans may have founded the very first city-state to rule much of the known world for centuries. Thanks to a unique and still largely unknown language, this early civilization was different from other Iron Age societies. It boasted sophisticated knowledge of agriculture, metalworking and sculpture, which strongly influenced ancient Greek and Roman culture.

For generations, scientists have wondered who the Etruscans were and where they came from. As early as the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote that mysterious people first lived in a distant land before moving to the Italian peninsula. Now extensive genetic research has confirmed the origins of the Etruscans, suggesting that they were local and that Herodotus was wrong.

DNA analysis

New DNA analysis shows that these ancient people shared many of the same genes as their Roman neighbors. As the study's authors write in the journal Science Advances, "the gene pool was largely preserved throughout the first millennium BC." This finding changed dramatically during the Roman Empire, when imperial expansion brought about the inclusion of populations from all over the Mediterranean.

Earlier archaeological and genetic research suggested that Italy was originally inhabited about 8 years ago by people migrating from Stone Age Europe and later from the Eurasian steppes and Anatolia. The still largely indecipherable language of civilization differs markedly from other societies of the time, but bears similar features to Greek.

So why does the Etruscans speak a non-Indo-European language?

A new study suggests that the Etruscans have managed to maintain their unique language - at least for a while. "When an Indo-European comes, it usually replaces the original languages, the Etruscans have managed to preserve the language," says Science co-author Guus Kroonen, a linguist at Leiden University in the Netherlands. But Etruria was eventually swallowed up by Rome. Later, the Etruscan language and culture disappeared similarly.

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