Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iv | migrations of cultures
4.3
CENTRAL ASIA AND
THE APENNINE
PENINSULA
Although it may seem strange to suggest a link between the Etruscan
civilisation and the civilisation of one of the regions of ancient Central Asia – Khorezm,
closer examination of information available to us suggests this idea is not without merit.
We know from coins that the Etruscans inhabited the territory of the Apennine
Peninsula in the early 5th century BC, but we still do not know where they originally
came from. Several scholars believe that the Etruscans were the indigenous
inhabitants of the peninsula, although others, in particular, V. Georgiev, believe that
they migrated here from Asia Minor at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 1st
millennium BC.
Scholars seeking their origins rely, apart from various kinds of historical and
linguistic documents, on the accounts of Herodotus, according to whom the
Etruscans, who he refers to as Tyrrhenians, migrated to the Apennine Peninsula
from Lydia in western Asia Minor. The Etruscans occupied the area on the peninsula
between the Arno and Tiber rivers, which came to be called Tuscany, from the Latin
Tusci or Etrusci.
Some scholars associate the ethnonym Tusci not only with the Etruscans, but also
with the name of the Tursha or Teresh people, mentioned as being among the ‘Sea
Peoples’ who are supposed to have waged maritime campaigns against ancient Egypt.
However, Asia Minor may not have been the original homeland of the Etruscans:
they may have lived even further east initially and only later moved into this region.
In this regard, any parallels between Urartians, Caucasians and Etruscans are both
interesting and difficult to explain.
It is quite difficult to explain the similarities this author noticed between the
statuary ossuaries from Khorezm and Etruscan funerary vessels, or kenops. The
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