The penetration of the Huns triggered late antiquity migration and changed Europe sustainably. But where these nomadic equestrian warriors came from and from which ethnic group they emerged in Central Asia was unclear. Now DNA comparisons show: Unlike expected, most Huns were no descendants of the East Asian Xiongnu Steppennomads. Instead, they had mixed with many local peoples when they arrived in Eastern Europe. But there were also exceptions.
Around 370, large groups of equestrian warriors suddenly appeared in the pontic steppe north of the Black Sea: the Huns. Their associations armed with efficient arches and strongly combat -resistant associations came further to the west over the course of the next few decades. “Your fights with the Alans and Goths triggered a series of events that changed the course of history for both the Roman Empire and in the ‘Barbaricum’,” explain Guido Gnecchi-Ruscone from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig And his colleagues. The arrival of the Huns marked the beginning of the migration, in the context of which ethnic groups such as the Markomanna, the vandals and the westerns were displaced from their traditional settlement areas and pushed into the area of the Roman Empire.
Under the rule of Attila around 440 to 450, the Hunnenreich reached its greatest extent. “The Huns prevailed over numerous ethnic groups in East Central Europe,” report Gnecchi-Ruscone and his team. Due to their conquests, further territories they also became a serious threat to the Roman Empire. Attila and the groups allied with it came to Germania and Gaul. However, the Huns did not manage to gain a foothold in Central and Southern Europe. After Attila’s death in 453, the Hunnenreich fell back relatively quickly. “Nevertheless, Attila became a legend and remains one of the best known historical personalities to this day,” the researchers write.
Where were the roots of the Huns?
But so far one question about the Huns has remained unclear: where did these steppe riders come from and what origin did they have? According to one theory, the roots of the Huns were at the Xiongnu, a nomadic people who prevailed over large parts of the eastern Central Asia in the period between 200 and 100 AD. China is said to have built his large wall to protect this first nomadic realm of Asia. However, the problem: between the end of the Xiongnu Empire and the appearance of the Huns are almost 300 years. “There are little archaeological or historical indications that there were Huns in the steppe during this gap,” report Gnecchi-Ruscone and his team.
Therefore, it has so far been controversial whether the Huns actually emerged from the Xiongnu. To clarify this, the researchers compared the DNA of 370 deaths, which had died and buried between 200 before and around 600 AD. Her graves are distributed in an area that extends from the Mongolian steppe in the east to the Danube region and the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe. Among these graves are also some that have typical Huns characteristics, including sacrificial boilers and ritual animal sacrifices, but also grave goods such as horse harnesses and arches.
Strong mix
The DNA analyzes showed: Contrary to common assumption, the Huns were not a purely Asian steppe people. “We find no evidence of the presence of a large proportion of eastern steppe origin among the Huns and the after-Huns population of the Carpathian Basin,” write Gnecchi-Ruscone and his colleagues. Instead, the dead showed a high genetic diversity even within the Huns graves. The Huns, which had penetrated according to Central Europe, were therefore rather mixed. “DNA and archaeological evidence show a mosaic of descent that indicates a complex process of mobility and interaction instead of mass migration,” says co-author Zsófia Rácz from the Eötvös-Loránd University in Budapest.
In doing so, the Huns differed significantly from the Avares, which were pushing to Europe two centuries later: “The Avars came directly to Europe after their East Asian empire had been destroyed by the Turks, and many of their descendants wore considerable until the end of their rule around 800 East Asian descent, ”explains co-author Walter Pohl from the Austrian Academy of Sciences. “The ancestors of Attila’s Huns, on the other hand, needed many generations on their way west and mixed with populations throughout Eurasia.”
Elites network
But there were also exceptions on how the DNA comparisons revealed. Because between some deaths from elite graves of the Xiongnu and the dead from some Huns graves, Gnecchi-Ruscone and his team discovered a direct genetic relationship. “It came as a surprise that some of these Huns individuals in Europe share parentage bonds with some of the high-ranking imperial elite individuals from the late Xiongnu Empire,” reports Gnecchi-Ruscone. These people were part of a network that extended from the late Xiongnu Empire in East Asia over several centuries to the European Carpathian Basin.
This confirms the DNA analyzes at least part of the traditional perspective: there were direct connections between the Hunstezeit population, the Steppe and the Xiongnu Empire-but these direct descendants of the Xiongnu were rather the exception: “Although the Huns changed the political landscape dramatically, If your actual genetic footprint remains limited-apart from certain elite graves, ”says Co-author Zuzana Hofmanová from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “Instead, the population overall seems to be predominantly European origin and continue local traditions, with some newly arrived steppe -based influences.”
Source: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology; Specialist articles: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/PNAS.2418485122