The available mitochondrial DNA
data appear incompatible with the
view that modern Tuscans are
descended from the Etruscans who
inhabited the same region 2,500
years ago. To understand how and
when such a genetic discontinuity
may have arisen, we extracted and
typed the mtDNAs of 27 medieval
Tuscans from an initial sample of
61, spanning a time period between
the 10th and 15th centuries A.D..
Etruscans and medieval Tuscans
share four mitochondrial
haplotypes, and serial coalescent
simulations show a clear
genealogical continuity between
them. By contrast, it was
impossible to fit into the same
mtDNA genealogy modern
inhabitants of the same area,
including those (Murlo, Volterra,
Casentino) who were recently
claimed to be of Etruscan descent.
These data strongly suggest that the
Etruscans did not get extinct when
their culture disappeared with the
Roman assimilation. However, they
contributed little to the modern
mitochondrial gene pool, probably
because of extensive immigration
after 1500 A.D.. No evidence of
excess mutation was found in the
ancient DNA by a Bayesian test,
and so there is no reason to suspect
that these results be biased by
laboratory artefacts in the ancient
sequences. Genealogical continuity
between ancient and modern
populations of the same area does
not seem a safe general assumption,
but rather a hypothesis that should
and can be tested using ancient
DNA analysis.

Arsinoe IV of Egypt, the younger
sister of Cleopatra, was murdered
between the ages of 16 and 18 on
the order of Marc Antony in 41 BC
while living in political asylum at
the Artemision in Ephesus
(Turkey). Archaeological findings
and architectural features point to
the skeletal remains found in the socalled
Oktogon - Heroon in the
center of ancient Ephesus - to being
those of Arsinoe IV. Respective
remains were dated and
investigated by forensic osteology,
radiology and ancient DNA
analysis to assess identification:
Radiocarbon dating (VERA-4104)
isolated the period between 210 and
20 BC (94 % prob.).
Morphological features suggest a
female with an estimated body
height of 154 cm (+/- 3 cm) and
with limbs in good proportion to
one another. Epiphyseal closure and
histological age estimation (femoral
cross sections) revealed a consistent
age at death between 15 and 17
years. The whole skeleton appeared
to belong to a slim and fragile
individual (soft tissue
reconstruction was applied and
compared to ancient sources).
Stress markers, like Harris’ lines
were absent and no sings for heavy
workload or pre- or perimortal
traumas were found. Ancient DNA
analysis was carried out for several
bone samples. No nuclear DNA
was detected, most likely due to
diagenetic factors and storage
conditions. Endeavors to find
mitochondrial DNA are currently in
progress. Investigations could
neither verify nor disprove the
theory on the origin of the remains.
However, after successful mtDNA
typing a maternal relative reference
sample would be required for final
identification.

A hypothesis endorsed by many
writers is that, in the social system
of Classical times, citizens did not
work for a living. This is supported
by iconography and literary
evidence, which presents a wellestablished
life of leisure for the
free. Therefore, slaves were solely
responsible for the cultivation of
land, forming a powerful
workforce.
However, social organization in
Classical Thebes may have been
very different from what is known
for Classical Athens, and indeed
many writers caution against
applying the Athenian model to all
Greek cities of the period. It may be
more likely that in Thebes, were
population density was such, that
people lived under maximum land
capacity, the need for labor force
was extreme. In this case, slaves
would have joined families and
worked with them.
Physical anthropology can provide
compelling evidence in the matter
of the division of labor in antiquity,
clearly portraying individuals not
involved in manual labor. The
present study examined 50
skeletons from Thebes’ most
extensive historical cemetery. The
results show that activity-related
skeletal alterations, traumas and
pathologies had affected the entire
population, verifying that slaves
and freemen were equally involved
in agricultural activities. This
evidence is important in
reconstructing social structure in
Thebes, moves away from the
domination of the paradigm of
Classical Athens and provides apt
information for the extreme need of
agricultural labor in the area during
this time.

The identification of infanticide in
perinatal skeletons is a topic that
has engendered considerable
controversy; distinguishing normal
infant mortality from catastrophic
death or large-scale infanticide is
difficult at best. Roman-era infant
skeletons deposited in a sewer at
Ashkelon, Israel (Smith and Kahila
1992) have been identified as
victims of infanticide, based
primarily on the age-at-death
distributions and the lack of formal
burial. Similar age distributions
from Roman cemetery burials have
been interpreted both as infanticide
in Britain (Mays 1993) and natural
infant mortality in Egypt (Tocheri
et al. 2005). Analysis of a late
Hellenistic/early Roman group of
perinatal infant skeletons (n=457)
deposited in a well in the Athenian
Agora, suggests that infanticide
may not be the appropriate
interpretation of perinatal mortality,
even in the absence of formal
burial. The frequency distributions
of long bone lengths indicate that
all of these sites have similar
patterns, but the Agora infants also
have been demonstrated to have
died from a variety of natural
causes including premature birth
and infectious disease (Liston
AAPA 2007). The age distribution
is similar to that found in other
collections of infants, all identified
as natural perinatal mortality. As
further evidence against widespread
infanticide, morphological
evaluation of the 321 preserved ilia
from the Agora tentatively suggests
a nearly balanced sex ratio as
expected with natural deaths, in
contrast to a subsample from
Ashkelon (Mays and Faerman
2001). However, the identification
of developmental defects in at least
nine Agora infants suggests that
infanticide may be implicated in
some infant deaths.

It is estimated that over 12 million
Americans claim Scottish ancestry.
To determine whether individuals
self-identifed as Scottish carry
Scottish genetics markers in their
genes, samples were collected from
50 males at the 2006 Kansas City
Highland Games. All individuals in
the sample identified themselves as
“Scottish.”. To determine possible
contribution from a paternal line,
surnames where analyzed. All but
6% of the individuals have
surnames that are currently found in
Scotland, with most surnames
having been present in the historical
records the since the mid 1500’s.
Analysis of 9 short-tandem repeats
on the Y-chromosome (YSTRs)
identified probable Y haplogroup
assignment. Individuals in this
sample represented the following
haplogroups: R1b, R1a (3%), I
(11%), J2 (12%), G (6%) and E3b
(4%). Haplogroup R1b dominates
the sample at 64%, as would be
suspected of a population with
origins in Western Europe.
Haplogroup frequencies are found
at those similar to the current
Scottish population, as well as in
similar frequencies to the rest of the
British Isles. All but six Y-STR
haplotypes matched individuals in
the current Scottish population.

It doesn't seem so unusual that there would have been continuity between the Etruscans of the Roman era and the Tuscan population of the Middle Ages (prior to the Plague). But I have to say that this break in continuity after the Renaissance (don't know when) is highly interesting.

The plague would surely have caused a sizable reduction of the Tuscan population of the middle ages, which you would think would have caused some sort of founder effect or bottleneck at that period, for AFAIK Tuscany was badly hit by the plague...which leads me to wonder why the Renaissance population (still had) Etruscan DNA.

Maybe the lineages of the Renaissance population in Tuscany were in the process of changing dramatically after the plague, but also due to immigration from other parts of Italy at that precise period in history.

Granted that it would have to read the paper, if it wouldn’t be at payment, what does he know Farfugliani of Tuscans, who is a “ferrarese”, town which had an influential Jewish community?
He is one of the Italians against Italians as many others, who wish to demonstrate that Italians aren’t Italians.
We know that Etruscans were formed by an upper class, of limited number, come from Anatolia and by a majority of Italics (or what I call “Rhaetians-Etruscans”). It is obvious that the upper class gave a little supply to modern Tuscans, but we find so far some “Etruscan” mitochondrial as R0a, as my cousin’s husband about whom I spoke on “dna-forums”. As time passes, the “Etruscan” presence is of course more and more less.
Which are the evidences that Tuscany had an immigration after 16th century, if we exclude Leghorn, open city whose history we know well? None.
First Farfugliani said that Tuscans hadn’t anything to do with Etruscans, now that “Modern Tuscans”. But who pay for his researches?

If the story of Erodoto was true, we would see in Tuscany Anatolian colonies as we have the Greeks in Sicily. But in Tuscany we have only villanovians villages that becomed cities.
The Etruscan is a people that is formed in the time, it was constituted by native and oriental elements that dealt the iron and that they are mixed to the local upper class, influeced the language and the customs.
We know that the Etruscan society was formed by a small aristocracy that governed a mass of servants, and this is the reason fof its decadence.
The true mystery of the etruscan language is not its origin but its disappearance. In the archaic times it influenced those of the neighbors, the Latins and the Faliscis, but when the etruscan power declined it quickly disappeared, without leaving traces. The dialect in Tuscany is the only one that doesn't have traces of the language pre Roman. In the other regions the dialects preserves the pre Roman languages and these languages also influenced the same Latin.
This can mean that the etruscan language was above all the language of an upper class, especially used for religious use, but it was not rooted in the big part of the people.

Maybe the "Etruscans" were too stupid to survive the Renaissance. They had made it till then because the Romans tolerated them...
It's a possibility worth considering.

And who invaded Tuscany after the "Renaissance"?

A rich upper class may marry their daughters far across the land, while their sons bring home wives from other places.

Perhaps the original Etruscan MtDNA just got heavily diluted throughout Italy.

Seems to me that region was pretty stable after the Renaissance, one should look into changes in marriage patterns, for which their would be historical (church) records...

"Seems to me that region was pretty stable after the Renaissance, one should look into changes in marriage patterns, for which their would be historical (church) records..."
Being Tuscan and having done researches in the churches and in Archives for forty years, I am able to affirm that what Farfugliani says it is unreliable: very few are the immigrants to Tuscany after Renaissance: only someone from Emilia, the Appennine's carpenters and woodcutters named "Lombardi", who came from region of ancient Etruscan origin like the region of Modena (the Etruscan 'Mutina'): perhaps they were more Etruscans than Tuscans. As I have said, Farfugliani is unreliable and "farfuglia" (mumbles).

Interesting, but remember we are only talking about the women, here...

Anyway the great Plague, the "Black Death", was in the 1347-52, while the Renaissance's apogeo was in the late 1400, with the Lorenzo De Medici's government in Florence.
The Plague The Plague struck the whole Italy, Europe and the Mediterranean countries, nobody emigrated in Tuscany. The migrations of the years 60 brought a lot of souther italian people to north of Italy, but in Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria, not in Tuscany.
Naturally the movements of the people are today very more numerous and fast than in the medieval age, but the population in Tuscany has been stable for centuries.

DagoRed, if you speak of the Sixties of last century, also Tuscany had an important immigration (someone calculated that the Tuscan inhabitants of to-day are 3,000,000 autochthonous and 600,000 due to Italian immigration, without counting these last dramatic events). What I deny it is a massive immigration after the Renaissance Age. For this I think that the reasearch of Farfugliani is all ideological, scarcely scientific, as there are other best explications beside immigration. It is in line with other recent papers like those on Phoenicians and Jews. I suspect that the line is the same. Usually when these studies are done, the individuals selected must have four native grandparents, then I think nobody of them was of recent immigration.

I wonder how much more similar to Northern Italy central Italy would have been without the perhaps small amount of "orientalization" due to Etruscans.
It could help to see where areas like Abruzzo and Molise stand genetically.
I don't remember reading much about these little known areas yet they are important historically to ancient italian history.

Gioiello mine was a rhetoric question, anybody you/he/she has invaded Tuscany after the small groups of Longobardi, naturally. It is true that also Tuscany has had an emigration from the south, but less that the industrial regions of the north, but as you you say it it is ininfluente on this study. What Farfugliani say is a nonsense.

Jack all the Italian regions of the Appenninies dorsal have a homogeneous population, from the north to the south: Piceni, Umbri, Latin, Osci, Sanniti etc. all of them are the "Italic Tribes." When they had the roman citizen formed wht we know how Italy. Nevertheless they can culturally differentiate in the time as that of the Lucanis, a Sannitic people strongly hellenizated after met the greeks of the coast..

DagoRed, your "ininfluente" manifests your Italian origin. Perhaps I know who you are, but if you prefer to remain anonimous...

i always thought etruscans looked sortve phoenician or north african