c. 1996 Religion News Service

MURLO, Italy (RNS)-In a country where a family’s lineage is often directly proportional to its status, the people of this Tuscan hamlet appear to take the top prize.

A series of excavations, historical research and, most importantly, medical tests suggests that some of the families in this hilltop village may be direct descendants of the ancient Etruscans, a people rich in cultural tradition who are believed to have first settled here in the eighth century B.C.”We know we have a special group here that is different from the others in the region, and I believe Murlo represents the epicenter of the Etruscans,”said Alberto Piazza, a geneticist at the University of Turin.

Piazza has been leading the most painstaking medical undertaking of his career-charting the DNA, or genetic molecular structure, of residents here and comparing it to some of the human skeletal remains that have been excavated from Murlo during the past 30 years.”We don’t have the complete results yet,”he said,”but I believe that by the beginning of next year the work will be done.” The relatively simple phase of his work started two years ago, when he and a team of researchers began choosing 150 people from Murlo to undergo blood tests from which their DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, could be identified.

The select group, culled from about 1,500 residents of Murlo and the surrounding area, included the young and old, though Piazza said most of those tested were elderly.

With most of those tests now complete, the team has focused on the delicate task of extracting DNA from the bones of skeletal remains, some of them believed to be at least 2,500 years old.

A match of today’s Murlo residents to the ancient Etruscans would constitute one of the most important genetic research finds to date, Piazza said, amounting to a confirmation of theories on where the Etruscans settled. It would also take archaeologists a step closer to determining where the Etruscans originated. Was it in Asia as many suspect, or could it have been in another region, possibly Sicily?

If successful, the genetic technique would likely be adopted by other researchers throughout Europe as they attempt to chart the continent’s past.

Many Murlo residents, while enthusiastic about the project, say they need no proof, having long believed their forebears were Etruscan. Still, they seem nonplussed that one of their ancestors may be none other than Rome’s first documented king-the Etruscan Tarquinius Priscus, who reigned from 616 B.C.”This business of the DNA of Etruscans isn’t necessary for us to know,”said Mario Lombardi, president of the Murlo Cultural Association.”The excavations are our patrimony. We are like macaroni and cheese with our Etruscan descendants.” Etruscan remains are littered across a wide swath of Italy’s mid section, along more than 100 miles of the Tyrrhenian Sea coastal region to the west, and inland to Tuscany and Umbria in the north.

Some of the most impressive archaeological finds, ranging from bone fragments to artisan jewelry, have turned up in the coastal towns of Cerveteri, Tarquinia and Viterbo, north of Rome.

With these ancient riches spread over hundreds of square miles, what led researchers to the inland town of Murlo?

In short, its isolation. Murlo sits atop a hill about 15 miles southeast of Siena and is cut off by mountains to the east and west. Historians who have documented the region say Murlo was rarely touched by war or mass exodus and was not a major intersection of trade.”Reproduction was very select,”Piazza said,”if for no other reason than people not intermingling with other groups.” Some of the oldest remnants of the town’s past have been discovered in archaeological digs that began 30 years ago. Researchers discovered a seventh- century B.C. L-shaped building on the Poggio Civitate site in Murlo that was 38 yards long and nine yards wide.

Subsequent finds on the site, many of them displayed in Murlo’s Etruscan Museum, have provided a fuller story of the village’s past. The excavations produced gold and silver jewelry, ceramics and household objects. A wide variety of artifacts, such as arrows and other sharp objects, were recovered, suggesting that the people were hunters.

Pottery slabs with oriental designs suggested the Etruscans came from Asia. Tiles and other clay fragments produced letters of an alphabet neither Latin nor Greek that pointed to their own language. And recovered sculpture, like the famous and well preserved bust of a man wearing a turned-up sombrero, offered facial details.

But many questions remain. If not from Greece, where did the Etruscan alphabet and language come from? If the settlers came from the Orient, why did they worship the same gods as the Greeks?

In fact, little is known about their religion. Historians say the Etruscans believed in life after death and studied the flight of birds, a form of superstition that the Romans adopted.

(BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)”The Romans characterized the Etruscans as a most religious or `superstitious’ people who excelled in omen reading …”according to the HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion.”Images of gods rarely occur, but artistic monuments record early beliefs and rituals. A monsterlike death demon is represented together with warriors and farmers on a bronze urn from Bisenzio, and scenes relating to fertility and war appear on the decoration of a jug from Tragliatella (near Cerveteri). In the Tomb of Five Chairs at Cerveteri, enthroned male and female statues of the deceased testify to the importance of an ancestor cult, as do statues from … Murlo.”(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

Eventually, the Etruscans assimilated, or were forced into, by the conquering Romans, becoming subjects by the third century B.C.

The Etruscans of Murlo were not excluded from these historic shifts. In the 12th century A.D., for example, they became feudal subjects of the bishop of Siena.

Yet they remained more segregated than most populations in the area.”If you look at their characteristics today-their complexion, their dark eyes, you can see that they have preserved a look from the past,”Piazza said.

These days, Murlo still feels isolated despite the short distance to Siena and even Florence. No major roads intersect the village, and there is no industry or commerce that draws people to the town, which has just one restaurant and a couple of markets.

Everybody seems to know one another. A birth in town is a rare occurrence and major news.

While the DNA testing could yield positive results and accelerate the speed by which archaeological research is advanced, few people in Murlo seem to think it will have any long-term consequences on their way of life.

Said Lombardi,”We will go on as we always have.”

MJP END HEILBRONNER