DNA analysis sheds light on Mongolia's first nomadic multiethnic empire

Unlike many other civilizations, the Xiongnu did not develop a writing system, in contrast to other nearby civilizations, which led to an absence of historical documents concerning them. The information about the Xiongnu was only known thanks to the civilization's rivals, especially that of the Han Dynasty.

While new research employing archaeogenetics has linked the abrupt movement and fusion of many nomadic groups in northern Mongolia around 200 BCE to the political origins of the Xiongnu, such findings have raised more questions than they have answered.

Genetic analysis

An extensive genetic analysis of two imperial elite Xiongnu burial sites located along the western edge of the empire was conducted by an international research team made up of experts from the Max Planck Institutes for Evolutionary Anthropology (MPI-EVA), and Geoanthropology (MPI-GEO), Seoul National University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University.

The cemeteries include a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir and an aristocratic elite burial site at Takhiltyn Khotgor.

Although the Xiongnu possessed a sizable amount of genetic diversity, the lead author of the study and Ph.D. candidate at Seoul National University, Juhyeon Lee, noted that it was difficult to determine whether this diversity resulted from a mosaic of locally uniform communities or if local communities were genetically diverse themselves due to the lack of genomic data at the community level.

The research team sought to comprehend the organization of this genetic variety at various social and political scales, as well as how it linked to gender, income, and power.

The empire was multiethnic

According to the study, both cemeteries contained people with great genetic variety, a trait seen throughout the Xiongnu Empire. This discovery supports the idea that the empire was multiethnic, with distinct populations at all levels of society and government. The significant genetic diversity was mostly stratified by social class, the researchers found.

The study also illuminates the Xiongnu's intricate social and political structure as well as the long-lasting impact of their traditions on succeeding civilizations in the area. The Xiongnu communities' high levels of genetic variability and variety indicate that the empire was a multiethnic body that integrated several tribes through marriage and familial relationships.

The study was published in Science Advances.

Study abstract:

The Xiongnu established the first nomadic imperial power, controlling the Eastern Eurasian steppe from ca. 200 BCE to 100 CE. Recent archaeogenetic studies identified extreme levels of genetic diversity across the empire, corroborating historical records of the Xiongnu Empire being multiethnic. However, it has remained unknown how this diversity was structured at the local community level or by sociopolitical status. To address this, we investigated aristocratic and local elite cemeteries at the western frontier of the empire. Analyzing genome-wide data from 18 individuals, we show that genetic diversity within these communities was comparable to the empire as a whole, and that high diversity was also observed within extended families. Genetic heterogeneity was highest among the lowest-status individuals, implying diverse origins, while higher-status individuals harbored less genetic diversity, suggesting that elite status and power was concentrated within specific subsets of the broader Xiongnu population.