What makes one a Hun and where did the Huns come from? Historians have long argued these questions about the fierce nomadic fighters who contributed to the fall of the Roman empire and the beginning of the “Dark Ages” in Europe.
One dominant theory about Hunnic origin posits that the equestrian warriors originated in what is now Mongolia, during the Xiongnu Empire. They then swept westward toward Europe, pivoted south through Germany, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
However, there is a 300-year gap before the collapse of the Xiongnu Empire and the Huns appearing in Europe around 370 C.E. Scholars have wondered if DNA evidence could fill that gap, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Tracking Genetic Footprints
A group of researchers did just that, by analyzing the DNA of 370 individuals that lived from the 2nd century B.C.E. to 6th century C.E. They took samples from sites along the Hunnic conquest path, from the Mongolian steppe, through central Asia, and into the Carpathian Basin in Europe. They especially looked at sites featuring traits linked to nomadic-style burials.
Their findings did not match their expectations. Only a small group of Hun-period individual genomes shared key genetic markers of late Xiongnu Empire leaders.
“It came as a surprise,” Guido Alberto Gnecchi-Ruscone a Max Planck evolutionary biologists and a co-author of the paper, said in a news release.
Read More: 5 of the Most Ruthless Rulers in Ancient History
Europeans Joined in Migration
Instead, the genetic evidence points to a more complicated mixture of Hunnic origins. As the Huns made their move from Mongolia to Europe, warriors from along the route may have joined them.
“DNA and archaeological evidence reveal a patchwork of ancestries, pointing to a complex process of mobility and interaction rather than a mass migration,” Zsófia Rácz of the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and an author of the study added in the news release.
Although the Huns' conquests changed the political and cultural landscape of Europe, their DNA contributions are more mixed. A migration that started in Asia saw its genetic footprints tilting more toward European ancestry as the army fought its way westward.
New Questions for Hun Society
The findings contrast with a later wave of European invaders: the Avars, who fled their East-Asian empire after being defeated by the Turks two centuries after the Huns brief reign. Many of the Avar ancestors still retained East Asian genetic markers. That may be because the Huns marched into Europe over a relatively long time period, while the Avars fled quickly.
The new study opens up many avenues of investigation. How many Europeans joined the Huns on their march? To what extent did their cultures mix? And how did societies that the Huns conquer change as a result?
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Ancient genomes reveal a trans- Eurasian connection between the European Huns and the Xiongnu Empire
Before joining Discover Magazine, Paul Smaglik spent over 20 years as a science journalist, specializing in U.S. life science policy and global scientific career issues. He began his career in newspapers, but switched to scientific magazines. His work has appeared in publications including Science News, Science, Nature, and Scientific American.
