ROME (AP)-For centuries, the she-wolf has been one of Rome’s most powerful symbols. But new theories suggest that the statue dates from the Middle Ages, and not from Etruscan times, as has long been held.

“It’s decisively medieval,” said Anna Maria Carruba, a researcher who studied the statue when she worked on its restoration a decade ago. “As I went ahead with my research, I was ever more sure,” Carruba said in a telephone interview on Wednesday.

While medieval might sound old to modern ears, if Carruba is correct the statue would be more than 1,000 years younger than had been thought.

Carruba said carbon dating of bits of dirt and clay indicate the statue was cast in the 7th or 8th century A.D. She also claimed the techniques of casting such a bronze work were developed in medieval times.

Her theory has skeptics.

Alessandro Naso, an Etruscan expert at the University of Molise, contended that Carruba’s “concluding that it isn’t ancient is based on indirect proof.”

Archaeologist Nicoletta Pagliardi was also cautious about Carruba’s theory. Lupa’s origins “are really uncertain,” she said in a phone interview.

Parisi Presicce, the Capitoline Museums director, said that in medieval times Rome’s symbol was considered to be a lion. He said that weakened arguments that Lupa was made during that period.

Carruba said her contention that the statue isn’t Etruscan takes nothing away from its mystique.

“It’s an amazing, fascinating, majestic sculpture,” she said.