This powerful book proposes never before recognized links between the culturally vibrant Etruscan people and long forgotten Jewish communities. No one has previously suggested an enduring and intimate link between these two dynamic cultures. The Etruscans and the Jews: New Orleans Echoes, Sardinian Shadows, Roman Shame is written as an adventure story that expands our understanding of both the lost Etruscan people and the Jewish diaspora.

The Etruscans created a world class civilization between 900 BCE and 100 CE replete with forward thinkers, skilled writers, and talented artists. The Etruscans were eventually systematically obliterated in a deliberate genocide by the Roman Empire, but the civilization they created flourished alongside beleaguered Jews for over a thousand years. In Turkey, Sardinia, Etruria and Italy, Etruscans and Jews inhabited the same regions, the same neighborhoods, enduring similar tribulations: invasions, expulsions, discriminatory rules, culture cancellations, and forced immigration.

The Etruscans and the Jews reveals an extensive and prominent Jewish population that lived on Sardinia for two thousand years, a forgotten vital segment of the diaspora. That Jewish community, with its mixed ancient Etruscan heritage, was forced to flee Sardinia in 1492 under Ferdinand and Isabella’s harsh Spanish Edict of Expulsion – and never returned. Its survivors spread across Europe.

The story told in The Etruscans and the Jews travels forever west. It flows from ancient Israel to western Turkey then to Italy, Sardinia, and France. Nineteenth century immigrants from Europe carried their Etruscan mixed heritage across the Atlantic to America.

As the investigation advances, archaeologists, folklorists and historians help to piece together facts that reinforce information found among relevant and often overlooked historic sites, specialized institutions, and ancient still thriving communities.

The Etruscans and the Jews may be simultaneously unsettling and thrilling to readers who will begin to wonder: could I be part Etruscan? .

ENDORSEMENTS FROM BEST SELLING AUTHORS AND HISTORIANS

In his new captivating book The Etruscans and the Jews, author Peter Wolf tells a story that is personal yet global in a well-researched and masterful way. Wolf transports readers across various Mediterranean and European locales and throughout different eras to disentangle and then reconnect chapters of the distant and more recent pasts that would otherwise remain muffled and untold. His story partially stems from a National Geographic Geno 2.0 DNA test that I am thrilled to have facilitated and discussed with him now several years ago, which then in turn ignited a spark in Wolf to research, explore, and soon reveal hidden historical accounts that personally connected him, and likewise millions of us, to an Iron Age Mediterranean past. In his book he brings to life millennia-old links between Jewish and Etruscan groups across an ancient sea and beyond, throughout a developing Europe. In his storytelling Wolf moves effortlessly between interviews with historians, archaeologists and geneticists, as well as his own twenty-first century voyage of self-discovery. Along the way he intermingles his experiences and lessons with what his ancestors lived and suffered through, all together narrating a flowing story that is both fresh and educational.

- Miguel G. Vilar, PhD Former Lead Scientist for Genographic Project, National Geographic Society. Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Maryland.

Peter Wolf is a master story-teller, and he has a rich and wonderous story to tell. Spurred by a lifelong sense of connection with the Etruscans—from youthful fantasy to a striking discovery while an author on fellowship in Rome--Wolf takes on the challenge to trace potential interactions of Jews and Etruscans in the ancient world. He studies them as they sail with Phoenician traders and seamen from the Levant to the Mediterranean and then as they share their fates under Roman rule. This investigation is personal for Wolf as he seeks his own ancestral roots, and a detailed DNA analysis leads him to Sardinia, where he takes the reader on a fascinating and unusual travelogue. Wolf is not an ordinary researcher; he employs techniques that range from archival to interpersonal, always powered by imagination and intriguing associations. This book brings to life the worlds inhabited by the Jews and the Etruscans, and then by the Roman and early modern communities of Jews in Sardinia. It is a mind-opening and compelling tale, and a pleasure to follow Wolf on his journey of discovery. >

- Carol A. Mandel Dean Emerita, New York University Division of Libraries; Distinguished Presidential Fellow, Council on Library and Information Resources.

Some of us search for roots in the usual places. Censuses and burial records. Random family trees. Gleanings from the internet. Peter Wolf dives into antiquity to puzzle out the millennial intermingling of Etruscans and Jews, where he finds them. He queries archeologists, DNA specialists, plunders learned journals, and literally leaves no stone unturned. The odyssey takes him to Etruscan burial chambers, Sardinian ruins, the Pantheon in Rome, Spain, Alsace-Lorraine, tracing not just the shards of the Etruscan past but the twisted road of the Jewish diaspora. A fascinating story. There’s much to ponder here

- Lawrence N. Powell Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Tulane University. Author of The Accidental City.

In The Etruscans and the Jews, Peter Wolf tells a surprising story about two ancient civilizations that flourished at the same time in the Mediterranean basin and that have long captivated our imaginations. Despite their geographic proximity and shared historical context, the Etruscans and the Jews have been studied with limited exploration of possible mutual interactions or influences. In a lively narrative style, Peter Wolf’s extraordinary book examines the historical and cultural contexts of the Etruscans and the Jews, as he considers and uncovers an array of potential influences of one culture upon the other and, most surprisingly, a possible blending of them.

We are reminded that the Etruscans were a mysterious and enigmatic people who inhabited central Italy from the 8th to the 1st centuries BCE. Their advanced civilization created Rome and other sophisticated urban centers, intricate art still widely admired today, and a complex religious and social system. The Jews, on the other hand, emerged from the ancient Near East before the diaspora brought them in contact with the Etruscans in Turkey, Italy and Sardinia. Wolf acknowledges that detailed evidence for interaction between the Etruscans and the Jews is necessarily limited, as so much time has passed, and that the extent of direct influence therefore remains uncertain. However, in his fully engrossing exploration of this topic, Wolf offers valuable insights into the complex and interconnected nature of the ancient Mediterranean civilization inhabited by the Etruscans and the Jews as he argues for a deeper understanding of the factors that likely linked these two beleaguered cultures.

- Vincent T. Covello, PhD Author, and Director, Center for Risk Communication and formerly Associate Professor of Environmental Sciences and Clinical Medicine, Columbia University.

Peter Wolf explores the fascinating, untold connections between the Jews and the lost culture of the people living on the island of Sardinia, nestled in the center of the Mediterranean Sea and closely connected with the Etruscans. His research becomes a journey across Sardinia (and more), where Peter uncovers hidden histories of coexistence, revealing how diverse cultures intertwined for centuries and I hope marking a path to peace. Join Peter as he delves into a profound and previously undisclosed legacy left behind in the beautiful, yet often overlooked, corners of Sardinia.

- Mario Delitala Founder of Motus Travel Company, Sassari, Sardinia.

Peter Wolf has written an ancestral odyssey, a quest spiced with lost languages, vanquished peoples, and nuances of DNA.

- Peter Petry Writer and Editor.

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