Ancient DNA reveals the multi-ethnic origin of the first nomadic empire

17 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

Painstaking archaeological excavations and new ancestral DNA evidence have unearthed new revelations about the world’s first nomadic empire, the Xiongnu.

These experienced horsemen had great genetic diversity and women reached the highest positions of powerAccording to a study published in the journal ‘Science Advances’.

Emerged in the Mongolian steppe 1,500 years before the Mongols, The Xiongnu Empire grew to become one of the most powerful political forces in Iron Age Asia, extending its reach and influence from Egypt to Rome and Imperial China.

Economically based on livestock and dairy production, The Xiongnu were nomadic and built their empire on horseback. Their skill in warfare on horseback made them swift and formidable foes, and their legendary conflicts with Imperial China they ended up leading to the construction of the Great Wall.

Unlike their neighbors, however, they never developed a writing system, and consequently the historical records about them have been almost entirely written down and passed down by their rivals and enemies. Such accounts, mostly written by Han dynasty chroniclers, provide little useful information about the Xiongnu’s origins, political rise, or social organization.

Although recent archaeogenetic studies have traced the origins of the Xiongnu as a political entity to a sudden migration and mixing of disparate nomadic groups in northern Mongolia around 200 BC, these findings have raised more questions than answers.

To better understand the inner workings of the seemingly enigmatic Xiongnu empire, an international team of researchers from the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA) and Geoanthropology (MPI-GEO), in Germany; Seoul National University (South Korea), the University of Michigan, and Harvard University (United States) conducted in-depth genetic research of two Xiongnu imperial elite burial grounds along the empire’s western border: an aristocratic elite cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor and a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir.

“We knew that the Xiongnu had a high degree of genetic diversity, but due to the lack of community-scale genomic data, it remained unclear whether this diversity arose from a heterogeneous mosaic of locally homogeneous communities or whether the local communities themselves were genetically diverse“, explains Juhyeon Lee, first author of the study and a doctoral student at Seoul National University.

The researchers found that individuals from the two cemeteries exhibited extremely high genetic diversity, to a degree comparable to that found in the Xiongnu Empire as a whole. In fact, high genetic diversity and heterogeneity were present at all levels—empire-wide, in individual communities, and even in individual families—, which confirms the characterization of the Xiongnu Empire as a multi-ethnic empire.

However, much of this diversity was stratified by status. The lowest status individuals (buried as elite satellites, probably as servants) had the greatest genetic diversity and heterogeneity, suggesting that these individuals came from remote parts of the Xiongnu Empire or beyond.

In contrast, local and aristocratic elites buried in wooden plank coffins within square tombs and stone ring tombs exhibited lower overall genetic diversity and harbored higher proportions of East Eurasian ancestors, suggesting that the status and power of the elite concentrated on specific genetic subsets of the general Xiongnu population.

However, even elite families seem to have resorted to marriage to strengthen ties with newly incorporated groups, especially in Shombuuzyn Belchir.

“We now have a better idea of ​​how the Xiongnu expanded their empire by incorporating disparate groups. and harnessing marriage and kinship in empire building,” says lead author Dr. Choongwon Jeong, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University.

A second important finding was that high-status Xiongnu burials and elite grave goods were disproportionately associated with women, corroborating textual and archaeological evidence that Xiongnu women played particularly prominent political roles in the expansion and integration of new territories along the border of the empire.

In the cemetery of the aristocratic elite of Takhiltyn Khotgor, researchers found that the monumental tombs of the elite had been built for women, and that each leading woman was flanked by a multitude of commoner males buried in simple graves.

The women were buried in elaborate coffins bearing the golden sun and moon emblems of Xiongnu imperial power, and one tomb even contained a team of six horses and a partial chariot.

In the nearby elite local cemetery of Shombuuzyn Belchir, women also occupied the richest and most elaborate graves, with grave goods consisting of wooden coffins, gilt emblems and gilt objects, glass and earthenware beads, Chinese mirrors, a bronze cauldron , silk robes, wooden carts, and more than a dozen head of cattle, as well as three objects conventionally associated with mounted male warriors: a Chinese lacquer goblet, a gilt iron belt clasp, and riding implements. These objects and their symbolism convey the great political power of women.

“Women wielded great power as agents of the Xiongnu imperial state along the border, often holding exclusive noble ranks, upholding Xiongnu traditions, and participating in both steppe power politics and so-called Highway exchange networks. of Silk”, affirms it’s a statement Dr. Bryan Miller, project archaeologist and Assistant Professor of Central Asian Art and Archeology at the University of Michigan.

Genetic analysis also provided unusual insights into the social role of children in Xiongnu society. “Children received differentiated mortuary treatment based on age and sex, which gives clues to the ages at which gender and status were ascribed in Xiongnu society,” says lead author Dr. Christina Warinner, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University and Group Leader at the Max Institute Planck’s Evolutionary Anthropology.

Although the Xiongnu empire eventually disintegrated at the end of the first century AD, the study’s results point to the enduring social and cultural legacy of the Xiongnu.

“Our results confirm the ancient nomadic tradition of elite princesses playing pivotal roles in the political and economic life of empires, especially in outlying regions, a tradition that began with the Xiongnu and continued more than a thousand years later under the Mongol Empire. says Dr. Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan, project archaeologist and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology’s Mongolian Archeology Project: Surveying the Steppes (MAPSS), “Although history has sometimes dismissed nomadic empires as fragile and brief, its strong traditions have never been broken”.