Autism Vox

Autism Genetics and Remembering the Etruscans

by Kristina Chew, PhD on January 25th, 2008

Once upon a time Rome was just a “small spot on the Tiber” and the Italian peninsula was populated by the Oscans, the Sabellans, the Umbrians, the Etruscans, and many many more peoples whom the Romans gradually conquered and brought under the rule of SPQR, Senatus Populusque Romanus, the Senate and the Roman People. Besides maps and coins and the writings of the Roman historian, Livy, and some recent archaeological finds, I’ve been thinking about how to incorporate some discussion of why genes matter in history into my teaching of the history of Rome (with those Roman soldiers marching to the far reaches (China) of the then-known world, surely they must have brought their genetic heritage with them, besides Latin).

Where precisely did the Etruscans—who were a distinct culture and people from the Romans and who had an alphabet and (it seems) practiced some degree of gender equality—-came from, and what did their language sound like, and why do so few traces of their civilization remain? These are questions that we’ll probably never know the precise answers to. Genetics provides some new insights about the Etruscans, who are typically referred to as “mysterious” in their origins; they are thought to be from the eastern regions of the Mediterranean world, possibly from Asia Minor. The Etruscans (as Gene Expression notes) do seem to have origins in the Near East, perhaps in Lydia, an ancient kingdom that is now in western Turkey. Reading through more reports like this one in Scientific American about the recently published studies on mutations on chromosome 16 being linked to 1 percent of autism cases, and another study about deletions on chromosome 10, I think about both how little and how much each new study seems to tell us. Can we ever find out if the Fescennine verses — a precursor to Roman comedy and satire—originated with the Etruscans? Might it ever be possible to know and to see what mutations, deletions, duplications, of what chromosomes brought Charlie—staying up past his bedtime to sneak in one more look at the soundless movie I took of him swimming in the ocean last summer—-to us?

Myself, I’ll keep on trying to translate what the bits of code and fragments we’ve been given might say.

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POSTED IN: China, Classics, Genetics, History, Water