The genetic origin of Huns, Avars and conquering Hungarians. The genetic origin of Huns, Avars and conquering Hungarians

Huns, Avars and conquering Hungarians were Migration Period nomadic tribal confederations which arrived in three successive waves in the Carpathian Basin between the 5th and 9th centuries. Based on historical data each of these groups are thought to have arrived from Asia, although their exact origin and relation to other ancient and modern populations has been debated. Recently hundreds of ancient genomes were analyzed from Central Asia, Mongolia and China, from which we aimed to identify putative source populations for the above-mentioned groups. In this study we have sequenced 9 Hun, 143 Avar and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples, and identified three core populations, representing immigrants from each period, with no recent European ancestry. Our results reveal that this “immigrant core” of both Huns and Avars likely originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians. On the other hand, the “immigrant core” of the conquering Hungarians derived from an earlier admixture of Mansis, early Sarmatians and descendants of late Xiongnus. We have also shown that a common “proto-Ugric” gene pool appeared in the Bronze Age from the admixture of Mezhovskaya and Nganasan people, supporting genetic and linguistic data. In addition, we detected shared Hun-related ancestry in numerous Avar and Hungarian conquest period genetic outliers indicating a genetic link between these successive nomadic groups. Aside from the immigrant core groups we identified that the majority of the individuals from each period were local residents, harboring “native European” ancestry.

匈人、阿瓦尔人及征服时期匈牙利人均为民族大迁徙时期的游牧部落联盟，于5至9世纪间分三批相继迁入喀尔巴阡盆地。根据史料记载，学界普遍认为这三支族群均源自亚洲，但关于它们的精确起源以及与其他古今人群的亲缘关系，至今仍存在争议。近期，研究团队对中亚、蒙古及中国地区出土的数百份古代基因组进行了分析，旨在为上述三支族群确定推定的祖先人群。本研究共完成了9份匈人、143份阿瓦尔人以及113份征服时期匈牙利人的样本测序，并鉴定出三个核心人群——分别对应三个时期的移民群体，均未携带近代欧洲血统。我们的研究结果显示，匈人与阿瓦尔人的这一“移民核心群体”大概率起源于现今蒙古国境内，其源流可追溯至多位历史学家所提出的匈奴（Xiongnu，即亚洲匈人）。另一方面，征服时期匈牙利人的“移民核心群体”则源自曼西人、早期萨尔马提亚人与晚期匈奴后裔之间的早期混血。本研究还证实，一个共通的“原始乌戈尔语族”基因库于青铜时代由梅日奥夫斯卡亚人群与恩加纳桑人混血形成，为遗传学与语言学相关研究提供了实证支持。此外，研究团队在大量阿瓦尔人与征服时期匈牙利人的遗传异常个体中检测到了与匈人相关的共享祖先成分，表明这些相继迁入的游牧族群之间存在遗传学关联。除了我们鉴定出的移民核心群体之外，各个时期的绝大多数个体均为当地居民，携带有“本土欧洲”血统。