Who were the ancient Xiongnu? Study uncovers genetically diverse empire and nomadic princesses
- Researchers examining Xiongnu cemeteries investigate how DNA relates to social and political structures as well as gender
- Historical narratives were largely written by rival Han Chinese who dismissed Xiongnu as ‘simple body’ of nomadic elites, says team
The world’s first nomadic empire – which battled imperial China for centuries – was very genetically diverse and not the “simple body” of people that its Han Chinese rivals long claimed, according to a new study of ancient DNA.
The nomads, known as the Xiongnu, also had prominent roles for women, the researchers said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on April 15.
At its height, the empire was a force in the political economies of Central, Inner and East Asia, creating extensive trade networks to import foreign goods, such as Roman glass, Persian textiles, Greek silver and Chinese silk, the paper said.
However, the Xiongnu did not have a writing system, and much of what is known about them was written and passed down by its political rival, the Han dynasty ruling China.
The Han Chinese “repeatedly and dismissively” characterised the Xiongnu Empire as a “simple body” of nomadic elites, and many aspects of the political constituencies and social organisation remain unknown, according to the paper’s authors.
01:03
The mysterious tomb of Han dynasty Emperor Wen among China’s top 10 archaeological finds
Previous studies have discovered a high level of genetic diversity across the Xiongnu Empire, which supported the claim that the empire was a “multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual entity”.
But scientists do not know if the diversity within the empire was made up of groups of people similar to each other within their own communities or if each community was internally diverse.
Juhyeon Lee, first author of the study and a PhD student at Seoul National University, said the authors wanted to know “how such genetic diversity was structured at different social and political scales, as well as in relation to power, wealth and gender”.
They conducted an intensive genome-wide archaeogenetic investigation of two Xiongnu cemeteries – one high-status cemetery and one low-status cemetery – in Mongolia, and generated data for 19 individuals from the two cemeteries.
The researchers found that both the empire as a whole and its local communities had high levels of genetic diversity, and the lowest-status individuals showed the greatest genetic diversity, suggesting they might have originated from distant parts of the empire.
Ancient genomes show migration from North America to North Asia, scientists say
“This further suggests the existence of an aristocracy in the Xiongnu Empire, that elite status and power was concentrated within specific subsets of the broader population,” the study said.
“The high genetic diversity found among the Xiongnu during all periods prevents any meaningful attempt to define a ‘representative’ Xiongnu genetic profile,” it added.
Moreover, Bryan Miller, study co-author and assistant professor at the University of Michigan, said the study found women played an important role in the Xiongnu Empire.
“Our archaeogenetics investigations demonstrated that in places like the western frontier, women played a significant role in long-distance interactions and kin alliances, and were active agents of empire who took on key political roles within far flung communities,” he said.
01:43
Ancient treasure trove unearthed in southwest China sheds light on mysterious kingdom
At the aristocratic elite cemetery, the authors found tombs containing the remains of adult women buried in decorated wood-plank coffins with horses, sheep, golden discs and crescent items representing the sun and moon, and Chinese bronze chariot pieces.
And at the local elite cemetery, they discovered the highest-status graves contained adult females buried in wood-plank coffins. The remains in the graves included a disassembled wooden cart, a Chinese mirror fragment and many livestock remains.
“Our results confirm the long-standing nomadic tradition of elite princesses playing critical roles in the political and economic life of the empires, especially in periphery regions – a tradition that began with the Xiongnu and continued more than a thousand years later under the Mongol Empire,” study co-author Jamsranjav Bayarsaikhan said.
“While history has at times dismissed nomadic empires as fragile and short, their strong traditions have never been broken,” said Bayarsaikhan, a postdoctoral researcher with the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany.
Meanwhile, the authors also identified “a pattern of gendering in Xiongnu society that began late in childhood, most notably with older boys bearing archery equipment”, Miller said.
According to the study, at the local elite cemetery, adolescents as young as 11 years old were buried with a bow and arrows.
