The authors interpreted this as possibly reflecting either a Bronze Age Anatolian-related migration or, alternatively, the persistence of older early farmer ancestry in the Etruscan population.

The study concluded that the Etruscans were unlikely to represent a recent large-scale migration from Anatolia, contradicting the Herodotean tradition.

But it also found evidence for genetic connections to the eastern Mediterranean that complicated the simple picture of Etruscans as simply local Italian Bronze Age people.

Where does this leave the Sea Peoples connection?

The evidence does not clearly support a direct derivation of the Etruscans from the Teresh (or any other Sea Peoples group), but it also does not definitively exclude it.

The ancient DNA evidence suggests that if Teresh migrants contributed to the early Etruscan population, they were not the dominant genetic founding event — the Etruscans were primarily Italian Bronze Age people with their own distinctive genetic history.