The origins of the Etruscan civilization of central Italy has been contested for thousands of years. Dionysius of Halicarnassus described them as indigenous to the region of Etruria, Herodotus described them as Anatolian immigrants to mainland Italy. The uncertainty of their origins widely stems from the fact that they spoke a language isolate, seemingly unrelated to Indo-European or any other language on mainland Europe, although a hypothetical Tyrrhenian language group has been proposed.
Here are some historically dominant theories regarding the Etruscans:
That they were indigenous to central Italy and a continuation of the early Iron age Villanovan culture
Immigrants of Pre-Greek indigenous Aegean origin, often referred to by Ancient Greek writers as "Pelasgians" or
Immigrants from Anatolia (Lydians according to Herodotus)
Connection with the Rhaetians, tribes of the Alpine region. This theory postulates that Etruscans immigrated from the North. This theory was suggested in the writings of Livy and Pliny the elder.
Have there been any new developments in recent years? What is the most widely accepted theory on the origins of Etruscans in year 2019? What has been concluded from DNA studies?
The current academic consensus, at least as of a few years ago (when my reference books were published) is that the Etruscans were indigenous Italians, whose culture evolved organically from Villanovan roots.
Herodotus' famous theory that the Etruscans were colonists from Lydia (1.94) is now generally thought to have been Lydian propaganda. The Lydians with whom Herodotus spoke may have believed that it was true; but the connection between Lydia and the Etruscans was probably invented in the early sixth century BCE. In this period, wealthy and powerful Lydian kings (of whom the last and most famous was Croesus) established lucrative trade relations with the cities of Etruria. It is thought that the story about an ancient kinship between the two peoples was invented to strengthen these economic ties.
Such myth-making was facilitated by the strangeness of the Etruscan language, which was recognized in antiquity. The little-known Raetic language seems to have been related, as (possibly) was the pre-Greek (i.e. "Pelasgian") language spoken on the northern Aegean island of Lemnos (known only from a few inscriptions). These commonalities provided the bases for the theories that the Etruscans either originated in or had connections with these regions. Although we really don't have enough information to say anything conclusive, it seems more likely that the peoples of these regions all spoke variants of the same pre-Indo-European language family - in other words, the languages in these places just happened to survive the onslaught of the Indo-European languages in the second millennium BCE.
However the Etruscans maintained their language, there is now enough archaeological evidence to say definitively that their culture developed in Italy. The Villanovan Culture, which dominated much of northern and central Italy in the early Iron Age, appears to have developed "Etruscan" characteristics over the course of the ninth and eighth centuries BCE, when it was transformed by intensive contact with the Greeks and Levant. At site after site, settlement is continuous from the Villanovan period to the Etruscan; there is no evidence for an invasion or migration.
Dominique Briquel, "Etruscan Origins and the Ancient Authors" in J. Turfa (ed.), The Etruscan World (Routledge, 2013), 36-55
God I love this sub. Thank you for taking the time to answer this.
Are there any similarities between the Etruscan and Basque languages, or are they in different groups?