Tuscany was home to the Etruscan culture, in the first millennium AD and is one of the few areas of Europe for which the genealogical relationships between past and present inhabitants have been thoroughly investigated at the genetic level. Analyses of deoxyribonucleic acid show that the contemporary Tuscans have affinities with people from the Near East but share very few mitochondrial haplotypes with the local Iron-age population, that is, the Etruscans. These results do not imply that the Etruscans got extinct, but certainly that they cannot be regarded as ancestral to most modern people of Tuscany. By contrast, there is evidence of genealogical continuity between Medieval and current times, which suggests that the main demographic change(s) occurred in previous centuries.
Origins of the Tuscans.
BARBUJANI, Guido;GHIROTTO, Silvia
2011
Abstract
Tuscany was home to the Etruscan culture, in the first millennium AD and is one of the few areas of Europe for which the genealogical relationships between past and present inhabitants have been thoroughly investigated at the genetic level. Analyses of deoxyribonucleic acid show that the contemporary Tuscans have affinities with people from the Near East but share very few mitochondrial haplotypes with the local Iron-age population, that is, the Etruscans. These results do not imply that the Etruscans got extinct, but certainly that they cannot be regarded as ancestral to most modern people of Tuscany. By contrast, there is evidence of genealogical continuity between Medieval and current times, which suggests that the main demographic change(s) occurred in previous centuries.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.