Lydia is inland from the island of Lemnos, and Smyrna (Izmir) from which Herodotus says the Etruscan set out for Umbria and Tuscany, lies between the two. The Murlo samples contained a genetic variant found only in the samples from Turkey and Lemnos, the island where a stele was discovered in 1885 inscribed in a pre-Greek language that is related to Etruscan, and dating to the 6th century BC. The results showed that all three groups, but especially those from Murlo, were more closely related to the samples from the near East than from other parts of Italy. The sampled individuals were from families that had lived in these areas for at least three generations and had surnames limited to these areas. DNA samples were obtained from three present-day Italian populations living in Murlo, Volterra, and the Casentino in Tuscany. Recent genetic studies of both Etruscan human remains and local oxen provides evidence that a connection with eastern Anatolia is not purely cultural and that Herodotus was right when he stated that the Etruscans originated in Lydia, southern Anatolia. It is even unclear when they first arrived in the Italian peninsula and whether an entire people migrated or only what became a ruling caste. The origins of the Etruscans – indeed almost everything about them – remains mysterious.
Airport, Railway Station and Port Transfers.
