Very nice!
You might look into the origins of Etruscan society.
There are two theories, either they're indigenous or they're not (very simple).
If you're tracing the winged, man-faced bull to the East, you might see if you can trace the Etruscans to the East as well.
One place to look is Lemnos, particularly at a stele found there written in an early form of Etruscan.
Just an idea. If you want me to look at the material for you and report, let me know.
Neat little treasures 
From what I understand, modern genetic evidence has determined the Etruscans were homegrown, and any suggestion of an eastern origin results from their early contact with the east during the early Archaic age (epigraphic evidence, bronze liver models, man-faced bulls, alliances with Carthage, etc.), which authors like Herodotus attributed to an eastern origin. I think the study determined that the common origin of ancient Etruscans and the modern inhabitants of Anatolia was 7600 BC in central Europe.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0055519
Coincidentally, we are working on the Etruscan section of our book now, so any assistance is much appreciated. PM me and I can send you a draft.
Hi all
This discussion really intrigues me.
I try to summarize some thoughts from the huge quantity of articles and books I'm reading on the matter.
The Etruscans arised from the native so called "Cultura Villanoviana", but they were very open to contacts with
Levant and near East, since early Iron age. The Lemnos'
Stele is a possible epigraphic evidence (even if later), but there are impressive etymological evidences,
still not much explored by scholars, for Akkadian roots of many Etruscan hydronyms and toponyms!
The most plausible vector of contacts between
Etruria and Semitic Near East were peoples and sailors named on ancient texts "Phoenicians", but who who were the Phoenicians going
west?
We have evidences for two major waves of westward expansion, the first was purely commercial, embracing a vast period between the fourteenth and tenth centuries BC (A highlight of all, the Phoenician bronze statuette, dated XIV century BC found in the sea off Selinunte in 1961). there are many evidences of Phoenicians coming from
Cyprus to the coasts of Tyrrenian sea, around
north african routes.
A second wave of Phoenician travels to
west had rather more clearly colonial characteristics, ie moving masses of people searching lands for new permanent settlements and not the easiest emporia. This second wave took place from the eighth century, following the neo-Assyrian expansion on the Mediterranean coasts of
Syria, which forced the Phoenicians to migrate westward in
search of refuge in safer lands (think of Malta,
Utica,
Carthage, Western
Sicily and Sardinia, as well as
Spain still further
west). So also for the Phoenicians there was a phenomenon first commercial and then colonial, the timetable in two distinct stages, just like for
Greeks, but "Phoenicians" came earlier, as also Greek historians stated about the colonization of
Sicily. In fact, as told by Thucydides (VI, 2), the
Greeks landed in
Sicily they realized that the Phoenicians
had arrived before them. It is clear that the Phoenicians at least until the eighth century were superior to the
Greeks as sailors, also if we consider they were the ones who brought
writing into the Aegean world, as well as Herodotus reports in
his story of Cadmus. Today it is widely accepted the idea of ​​a Phoenician "colonization" in the
West a few years preceding that of Euboians. Just think of the discoveries of objects with Syrian Aramaic inscriptions found in Pithecusa and Francavilla Marittima (see the
work of Buchner and Garbini).
Going back to the first wave of spread of "Phoenicians" westward, it was during the transition between the
Bronze Age and Iron Age, we have many evidence, but in this case I put the marks to "Phoenicians", because it is very difficult to identify with certainty the ethnicity of eastern people who since end of the second and during the first millennium came
west (especially Sardinia,
Sicily and the Tyrrhenian coasts of Central
Italy) in
search of metals: the archaeological evidence tell us about people coming not only from
Phoenicia as we common refer to (Tyre and
Sidon for instance), but also of Cypriots and Syrians. Carefully re-reading the ancient sources we understand that for the
Greeks "Phoenician" did not meant literally what we mean today, but could have different meanings, attributable in general to any eastern people sailing from east to
west along the coasts of
Anatolia or north-eastern
Africa, therefore also Carians were "Phoenicians" to
Greeks in ancient times, as well as the Semitic peoples of
Cilicia,
Cyprus and
Syria, as well the Arameans. In any case, this first wave
had definitely purely commercial reasons: the exchange of metals with probably mostly perishable goods, which is why we have few surviving traces except for fragments of vases (a slave or a
fine cloth would leave no archaeological traces, as opposed to a copper ingot, as those made in
Cyprus and found in Sardinia). As sample of significant evidence of privileged contacts between the Tyrrhenian and the Eastern Mediterranean between Bronze and Iron Age: the discovery in Piediluco, between
Sabina and
Umbria, of Cypriots bronzes dated to
XII BC. In any case, the few archaeological evidence we have are very interesting, like the statue found in Selinunte I mentioned above, or the even more significant and stunning evidence of the two fragments of
pottery found at Rieti, locally manufactured, dated XIII century BC (with inscriptions
engraved before cooking, therefore on-site), in
writing so called "pseudo-hieroglyphic of Byblos," used the middle of the second millennium in
Syria, Lebanon and
Palestine. Personally I find it amazing that in XIII BC Central
Italy, at a site not even close to the coast, there was someone who produced inscriptions in a language that was written at Byblos. We often talk of the Greek
inscription dtaed
VIII bc found in Ischia (Pithecusa) on the famous "Nestor's
Cup", but how many know that in Sardinia we have at least two examples of inscriptions in Phoenician (Nora fragment and fragment of Bosa), which date back to the tenth century BC ? Perhaps Western scholars have been too "hellenocentric" in their studies, and the component of the Semitic origins of Western civilization should be reconsidered, perhaps today we can afford it now that anti-Semitism that was polluting
classical studies during '800 and' 900 can be finally put to
part...
About genetic evidences, a paper published in 2014 on Science (
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/343/6172/747) shows that people's DNA living today in Toscana, Central
Italy ancient
Etruria,
had an important and conspicuous external contribution, given that affects 27 percent of the genome, and it is of levantine and Cypriot people, dated at about sixth century BC. This is a possible match to evidences of Cypriot craftsmen and artists living on the coast of the Tyrrenian sea during Orientalizing period.
So finally, I think the Etruscan civilization
had local roots (a visit to the Archaeological Museum of Bologna is enough to understand this), but with great contribution from East, not only cultural, but also made of living bodies of people. This is the reason for when we look to archaic Etruscan objects we sometimes cannot distinguish if they are western or eastern in their conception and iconography. Try to look at the frescoes of the Tomb of The Bulls in Tarquinia.
Sorry for the huge post
Regards
Nico
