Dear listmembers,
An article from the NYT, 3 Apr, 2007 maintains that three new DNA
studies boost Herodotus' account of Etruscans as migrants to Italy.
Key snippets:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/03/science/03etruscan.html?
_r=1&oref=slogin
<< Because Italians take pride in the Roman empire and the Etruscan
state [actually, many city-states -- FB] that preceded it, asserting
a foreign origin for the Etruscans has long been politically
controversial in Italy [note that this scholarly taboo originated
under the Fascist regime! -- FB]. Massimo Pallottino, the dean of
modern Etruscan studies in Italy who died in 1995, held that because
no one questioned that the French, say, developed in France, the
same assumption should be made about the Etruscans. "Someone who had
a different position didn't get a job in archaeology," said Antonio
Torroni, a geneticist at the University of Pavia. [...] Three new
and independent sources of genetic data all point to the conclusion
that Etruscan culture was imported to Italy from somewhere in the
Near East. >>
For previous discussions on this List, see my initial post archived
at
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cybalist/message/47547
and the threaded discussion, as well as, of course, R.S.P. Beekes'
paper "The Origin of the Etruscans" already posted at the List's
Files section (name of the file: "etruscan.pdf").
Kindest regards,
Francesco