Guido Alberto Gnecchi Ruscone (Max Planck Institut) The “Huns”: on the trails of trans-Eurasian genomic connections with the “Xiongnu”

The Huns appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing an Empire that reshaped West Eurasian history. Despite their notoriety we know very little about their history before they appeared in the late 4th century in the Carpathian Basin area. Historical sources tell us that they arrived from east of the Volga river and describe their lifestyle as carrying typical aspects of nomadic cultures of the Eurasian Steppe. In the 18th century prominent scholars start to specifically associate the European Huns with the Xiongnu. This was a powerful nomadic empire centered in the Mongolian steppe from the 2nd century BCE until its dissolution in the early 2nd century CE; around 300 years before the Huns appeared in Europe. After 250 years of research and debate, most scholars agree that there is no ground for a simplistic ethnic identification of both “Huns” and “Xiongnu” as under these umbrella terms lies an extremely heterogenous mix of people. But whether there is still a connection at a smaller or larger portion of these two complex societies is still a divisive topic. The consensus leans towards acknowledging that the archaeological, historical and linguistic evidences are contradictory or simply too little to provide any conclusive answer. In seminar I am going to present the results of ancient DNA project where we addressed this question via the analyses of new genomic data from and around the Hun period in Europe. We then include all available published data from across the Eurasian Steppe, including the Xiongnu period in Mongolia. Can this new source of information provide some answers to this divisive topic?