The Huns appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing an Empire that reshaped West Eurasian history. Yet until today their origins remain a matter of extensive debate. Traditional theories link them to the Xiongnu, the founders of the first nomadic empire of the Mongolian steppe. The Xiongnu empire dissolved, however, ~300 y before the Huns appeared in Europe, and there is little archaeological and historical evidence of Huns in the steppe during this time gap. Furthermore, despite the rich 5th to 6th centuries current era (CE) archaeological record of the Carpathian Basin, the cultural elements of connections with the steppe are limited to few findings and even fewer solitary eastern-type burials. In this study, we coanalyze archaeological evidence with 35 newly sequenced and published genomic data for a total of 370 individuals-from 5th to 6th century CE contexts in the Carpathian Basin including 10 Hun-period eastern-type burials, 2nd to 5th century sites across Central Asia and 2nd c. before current era (BCE) to 1st c. CE Xiongnu period sites across the Mongolian steppe. We find no evidence for the presence of a large eastern/steppe descent community among the Hun- and post-Hun-period Carpathian Basin population. We also observe a high genetic diversity among the eastern-type burials that recapitulates the variability observed across the Eurasian Steppe. This suggests a mixed origin of the incoming steppe conquerors. Nevertheless, long-shared genomic tracts provide compelling evidence of genetic lineages directly connecting some individuals of the highest Xiongnu-period elite with 5th to 6th century CE Carpathian Basin individuals, showing that some European Huns descended from them.

Archaeological Department Hungarian National Museum Budapest 1088 Hungary

Archäologischer Dienst GesmbH St Pölten 3100 Austria

Branch of Institute of Archaeology by A Kh Margulan Nur Sultan 010011 Kazakhstan

Center of Paleogenetics and Ethnogenomics Institute of Genetics and Physiology Almaty 050060 Kazakhstan

Department of Anthropology Hungarian Natural History Museum Budapest 1083 Hungary

Department of Anthropology University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712

Department of Archaeogenetics Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig 04103 Germany

Department of Archaeology and Museology Faculty of Arts Masaryk University Brno 60200 Czechia

Department of Biological Anthropology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest 1117 Hungary

Department of Historical Archaeology Institute of Archaeology Hungarian Research Network Research Centre for the Humanities Budapest 1097 Hungary

Department of Prehistory and Migration Period Budapest History Museum Aquincum and Archaeological Park Budapest 1031 Hungary

Hajdúsági Museum Hajdúböszörmény 4220 Hungary

History of Art University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109

Institute for Advanced Study Princeton NJ 08540

Institute for Data Innovation in Science Biodata Science Center Seoul National University Seoul 08826 Republic of Korea

Institute for Medieval Research Division of Historical Identity Research Austrian Academy of Sciences Wien 1010 Austria

Institute of Archaeogenomics Hungarian Research Network UN REN Research Centre for the Humanities Budapest 1097 Hungary

Institute of Archaeological Sciences Eötvös Loránd University Budapest 1088 Hungary

Institute of Austrian Historical Research Faculty of Historical and Cultural Studies University of Vienna Wien 1010 Austria

Institute of Biology Doctoral School of Biology Eötvös Loránd University Budapest 1117 Hungary

Lendület Momentum Bioarchaeology Research Group Budapest 1097 Hungary

Museum of Anthropological Archaeology University of Michigan Ann Arbor MI 48109

School of Biological Sciences College of Natural Sciences Seoul National University Seoul 08826 Republic of Korea

State Historical and Cultural Museum Reserve Berel Zhambyl 070906 Kazakhstan

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Ancient genomes reveal trans-Eurasian connections between the European Huns and the Xiongnu Empire