Some said they were a very old race from their heartland in present-day Tuscany but some thought they came from as far away as northern Europe.

The Greek historian Herodotus believed, however, that they had sailed to Italy from Anatolia, in what is now south-east Turkey, fleeing a long famine.

Now a team from Turin university says Herodotus was right.

Comparing DNA from people living in what was once the Etruscan heartland in present-day Tuscany with that of today’s inhabitants of Greek islands, the Middle East and other parts, a team led by Professor Alberto Piazza say they have found “a unique genetic component” shared only by central Tuscans and Turks.

“We knew that the people of Volterra and other Tuscan towns were genetically different from those in neighbouring areas,” Piazza told an international genetics conference in Nice at the weekend.

“Now we have found the precise genetic variant that appears to have clinched the question of their origins”. The discovery has been backed by another recent genetic study by the University of Piacenza which found that Tuscany’s cattle, famous for their uniquely tasty and hefty meat, were “60% similar” to Turkish breeds. The Etruscans are believed to have formed the first advanced civilisation in Italy, based in an area called Etruria, corresponding mainly to present-day Tuscany and northern Lazio.

At the height of their power at around 500 BC - when Rome itself was subjugated - they spread to the foothills of the Alps and southward close to Naples.

Modern knowledge of their civilisation is based largely on archaeological finds, since much of their language has yet to be deciphered.

For many people the Etruscans have a romantic, mysterious aura and there is a raft of web sites devoted to them.

The Associated Press

By COSTAS KANTOURIS

March 01, 2007

It shows exactly the same technique and size, which led us to link the two statues beyond doubt.

A 2,200-year-old statue of the goddess Hera has been found in a wall of a city under Mount Olympus, mythical home of Greece’s ancient gods, archaeologists announced Thursday.

The headless marble statue was discovered last year during excavations in the ruins of ancient Dion, some 50 miles southwest of Thessaloniki.

Archaeologist Dimitris Pantermalis said the life-sized statue had been used by the early Christian inhabitants of the city of Dion as filling for a defensive wall.

He said the 2nd century-B.C. find appeared to have originally stood in a temple of Zeus, leader of the ancient Greek gods, whose statue was found in the building’s ruins in 2003. The statue of Hera stood next to that of Zeus in the temple, said Pantermalis, a Thessaloniki University professor who has headed excavations at Dion for more than three decades.

‘The statue represents a female form seated on a throne, and is made of thick-grained marble like the one of Zeus,’ he said. ‘It shows exactly the same technique and size, which led us to link the two statues beyond doubt.’

Pantermalis said that, if confirmed, it would be the first time two statues of different gods have been located from a single temple in Greece. He said it was also possible that a statue of Athena, goddess of wisdom, could have stood in the temple of Zeus. He said he was hopeful that it might be found during future excavation.

Dion was a major religious center of the ancient Macedonians. Alexander the Great offered sacrifices there before launching his victorious campaign against the Persian Empire in the 4th century B.C.

Excavations so far have revealed temples, theaters and a stadium, city walls, a hotel, baths and streets with an elaborate drainage system, as well as many statues.

The area was first inhabited during the Iron Age, and survived into early Christian times, when it was the seat of a bishop.

Pantermalis will present the find on Friday, during a three-day archaeological conference that opened in Thessaloniki Thursday.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.