Etruscan military

[Dan Diffendale]

They found an Egyptian mummy in Alexandria, dated to the early Ptolemic period, with an Etruscan inscription...if she was Egyptian, why an Etruscan inscription.....???

The so-called Zagreb Mummy (because it's in a museum in Zagreb, Croatia) was wrapped in linen as was usual with mummies. The weird thing was that the linen wrapping bore very many lines of Etruscan text. What seems to have happened is that an Etruscan book of rituals and liturgy was thrown out and recycled by a linen dealer for mummy wrappings.

Obviously during the various incursions by Huns, Goths and others into this area, those of the Etruscan lineage had moved elsewhere...if the researchers had studied further afield or a higher proportion of locals, they may have found some matches...! Etruscan inscriptions have been found outside Eturia in South Eastern France, Corsica, North Africa and Sardinia....exactly where I would expect the population to move to away from the invaders...

Prime spots for trading... and not dated to periods that any hypothetical exodus might have taken place.

I think the most likely story is simply that the population was diluted. It's also possible that the upper class (who had enough money to be buried in a way that preserves enough for DNA testing) were of different genetic heritage than the lower classes, and never had enough numbers to make an impact on the genetic diversity of the area.