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A PC plot of craniometric variation showing Mongolian and Chinese differences. Here, we see that the Egiin Gol Xiongnu are plotting separately from the pooled samples of other Mongolians. In addition, we see the other pooled Xiongnu sample plotting closer to the Liaoning sample of Xianbei nomads discussed in the text.
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among those groups that have a historical relationship, such as populations from China and Siberia. More interestingly, when the Xiongnu are analyzed separately against some of these other groups, it shows they have close biological and historical connections to nomadic groups in northern China and southern Siberia. For example, when compared to Chinese groups, the Xiongnu are closely connected to a sample from Liaoning province in China, which is composed of nomads known as the Xianbei (206 BCE – 581 CE). The Xianbei were contemporaneous with the Xiongnu and historical records indicate that after the fall of the Xiongnu empire, many individuals joined with the Xianbei.
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The Xiongnu also exhibit some similarity to the Yakut of southern Siberia. The Yakuts (or Sakha as they call themselves) are a Turkicspeaking group with borrowed Mongolic words who reside in the modern republic of Yakutia, an autonomous region in Central and northeastern Siberia that is part of the Russian Federation. They are semi-nomadic cattle and horse breeders surrounded by Tungustic-speaking reindeer herders (known as Evenks and Evens) and huntergatherers. This group has been studied extensively at the molecular level (Zlojutro et al., 2008, 2009), and also at the ancient DNA level (Amory et al., 2006; Ricaut et al., 2006; Crubezy et al., 2010). The evidence from ancient mtDNA suggests the Yakuts