The reconstructed basilica would give the final resting place to the Hungarian kings who were originally buried there.Continue reading
An international team of researchers working on the HistoGenes project has uncovered far-reaching genetic links between Inner Asia and the Carpathian Basin, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE, Budapest) announced. The discovery could put an end to centuries of debate about the origins of the Huns.
The international research team, with the help of ELTE researchers, has directly linked individuals from the European Hun period to some of the most prominent figures of the Xiongnu Empire (Asian Hun Empire). At the same time, it has been revealed that only few of the entire early Carpathian Basin population were of East Asian origin, and that the new arrivals were of rather mixed origin. The researchers published their the discovery in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The Huns crossed the Volga in the 370s and established one of Europe’s most influential, albeit short-lived, nomadic empires. Researchers have long wondered about the relationship between the Xiongnu, also known as the Asian Huns, and the groups that emerged in Europe, while the similarity of ethnonyms is widely accepted.
The Xiongnu Empire broke up around 100 AD, leaving a gap of more than 250 years between the two empires.
Researchers have been looking for answers to the question of whether DNA lines can be discovered that bridge this vast time span.
The study compared the DNA of 370 individuals who lived between the 2nd century BC and the 6th century AD in three major geographical regions:
These included 35 newly analyzed genetic samples from Hungary and the eastern region of Kazakhstan. The researchers took into account the entire known population of the Carpathian Basin from the 4th to 6th centuries, including burials with Steppe features and local Late Sarmatian (4th to 5th centuries), as well as the cultures of the Kingdom of Gepids (5th to 6th centuries).
The results show that there were no major communities of Asian or Steppean origin in the Carpathian Basin after the arrival of the Huns, accounting for only 7 % of the population. However, a small but distinct group was identified that did indeed carry significant East Asian genetic traits.
The discovery was made with a new way of comparing genealogical relationships: analysis of the DNA segments shared by individuals proved direct common ancestry (IBD/identity-by-descent method). Some individuals in Hungary showed a direct IBD link to Mongolian high ranking individuals from the late Hun Empire in Asia.
Part of this biological web of connections included an individual buried in the largest Mongolian so-called terraced tomb ever discovered. Among the Hungarian samples, a male buried in Budapest and two females buried in Tiszagyenda and Tiszabura-Pusztataskony (central Hungary), and males buried in Kecskemét (central Hungary) and Sângeorgiu de Mureș (Marosszentgyörgy, Transylvania), are directly related to Asian Huns.
The newly discovered links prove that some of the European Huns’s ancestry can be traced back to the Mongolian steppes, to prominent individuals buried in late Xiongnu burials.
However, the population of the Hun Empire was genetically extremely heterogeneous.
Genetic and archaeological evidence both show the mosaic nature of the communities living here, suggesting complex processes of mobility and interaction, rather than mass migration from a single location,”
they explained. Even the burials with Steppe characteristics are culturally and genetically diverse, with some individuals associated with Eastern Sarmatian and Caucasian populations.
The genetic links with the East can still be traced, albeit to a much lesser extent, in the post-Hun period cemeteries, that is evidence of the common ancestry of people of Eastern and European descent and the survival of the Hun population in the Kingdom of Gepids.
The new findings also show that the arrival of the Huns in Europe may have taken place in a different way from the arrival of the Avars two centuries later,
the press release said.
Just a few years after their empire in Inner Asia was destroyed by the Turks, the Avars had already found a new home in Europe, and many of their descendants carried a significant East Asian genetic heritage until the end of their reign. The ancestors of Attila the Hun, however, established a new empire in Europe many generations later, incorporating many other Eurasian groups. And although they dramatically transformed the political landscape, their actual genetic footprint remained limited.
From a broader perspective, the paper shows how cutting-edge genetic research, combined with careful exploration of the archaeological and historical context, can resolve centuries-old debates about the composition and origins of past populations.
While many questions remain, the work provides compelling evidence for a direct link between Hun populations, the Eurasian steppes and the Asian Hun Empire, helping to understand the dynamic networks that connected East and West Eurasia in the past, the release concluded.
Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay
