fbpx
Wikipedia

Huns

January 08, 2024

"Hun" redirects here. For other uses, see Hun (disambiguation).

The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part of Scythia at the time;[1] the Huns' arrival in Europe is associated with the migration westward of an Iranian people, the Alans.[2] By 370 AD, the Huns had arrived on the Volga, and by 430, they had established a vast, if short-lived, dominion in Europe, conquering the Goths and many other Germanic peoples living outside of Roman borders and causing many others to flee into Roman territory.

Huns
370s–469
Territory under Hunnic control circa 450 AD
CapitalAttila's Court
Common languages
GovernmentTribal Confederation
King or chief 
• 370s?
Balamber?
• c. 395 – ?
Kursich and Basich
• c. 400–409
Uldin
• c. 412 – ?
Charaton
• c. 420s–430
Octar and Rugila
• 430–435
Rugila
• 435–445
Attila and Bleda
• 445–453
Attila
• 453–469
Dengizich and Ernak
• 469–?
Ernak
History 
• Huns appear north-west of the Caspian Sea
pre 370s
• Conquest of the Alans and Goths
370s
• Attila and Bleda become co-rulers of the united tribes
437
• Death of Bleda, Attila becomes sole ruler
445
451
• Invasion of northern Italy
452
454
• Dengizich, son of Attila, dies
469

The Huns, especially under their King Attila, made frequent and devastating raids into the Eastern Roman Empire. In 451, they invaded the Western Roman province of Gaul, where they fought a combined army of Romans and Visigoths at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields, and in 452, they invaded Italy. After the death of Attila in 453, the Huns ceased to be a major threat to Rome and lost much of their empire following the Battle of Nedao (c. 454). Descendants of the Huns, or successors with similar names, are recorded by neighboring populations to the south, east, and west as having occupied parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia from about the 4th to 6th centuries. Variants of the Hun name are recorded in the Caucasus until the early 8th century.

In the 18th century, French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people, who lived in northern China from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD.[3] Since Guignes' time, considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating such a connection. The issue remains controversial, but recent archaeogenetic studies show some Hun-era individuals to have DNA similar to populations in ancient Mongolia.[4] Their relationships with other entities, such as the Iranian Huns and the Huna people of South Asia, have also been disputed.

Very little is known about Hunnic culture, and very few archaeological remains have been conclusively associated with the Huns. They are believed to have used bronze cauldrons and to have performed artificial cranial deformation. No description exists of the Hunnic religion of the time of Attila, but practices such as divination are attested, and the existence of shamans is likely. It is also known that the Huns had a language of their own; however, only three words and personal names attest to it.

Economically, the Huns are known to have practiced a form of nomadic pastoralism. As their contact with the Roman world grew, their economy became increasingly tied with Rome through tribute, raiding, and trade. They do not seem to have had a unified government when they entered Europe but rather to have developed a unified tribal leadership in the course of their wars with the Romans. The Huns ruled over a variety of peoples who spoke numerous languages, and some maintained their own rulers. Their main military technique was mounted archery.

The Huns may have stimulated the Great Migration, a contributing factor in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.[5] The memory of the Huns also lived on in various Christian saints' lives, where the Huns play the roles of antagonists, as well as in Germanic heroic legend, where the Huns are variously antagonists or allies to the Germanic main figures. In Hungary, a legend developed based on medieval chronicles that the Hungarians, and the Székely ethnic group in particular, are descended from the Huns. However, mainstream scholarship dismisses a close connection between the Hungarians and Huns.[6] Modern culture generally associates the Huns with extreme cruelty and barbarism.[7]

Origin

Main article: Origin of the Huns
class=notpageimage|
The Eurasian Steppe Belt ( ), and main contemporary continental Asian polities circa 400 CE. Towards the east of the Steppe Belt, the rise of the powerful Rouran Khaganate may have encouraged the migration of the Huns to the west.[8] On the other hand, some historians have noted a high synchronicity between the "reign of terror" of Attila in the west and the southern expansion of the Hephthalites, a vassal state of the Rourans, with extensive territorial overlap between the Huns and the Hephthalites in Central Asia.[9]

The origins of the Huns and their links to other steppe people remain uncertain:[10] scholars generally agree that they originated in Central Asia but disagree on the specifics of their origins. Classical sources assert that they appeared in Europe suddenly around 370.[1]

Roman-era sources

Most typically, Roman writers' attempts to elucidate the origins of the Huns simply equated them with earlier steppe peoples.[11] Roman writers repeated a tale that the Huns had entered the domain of the Goths while they were pursuing a wild stag, or else one of their cows that had gotten loose, across the Kerch Strait into Crimea. Discovering the land good, they then attacked the Goths.[12] Jordanes' Getica relates that the Goths held the Huns to be offspring of "unclean spirits" and Gothic witches (Getica 24:121).[13]

Relation to the Xiongnu and other peoples called Huns

 
Domain and influence of Xiongnu under Modu Chanyu around 205 BC: the area hypothesised to have formed the cradle of Hun culture.

Since Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century, modern historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the 4th century AD with the Xiongnu who had invaded numerous Central Plain polities from the Mongolian Plateau between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD.[3] After the devastating defeat by the Han dynasty, the northern branch of the Xiongnu retreated north-westward; their descendants may have migrated through the Eurasian Steppe and consequently they may have some degree of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns.[14] Scholars also discussed the relationship between the Xiongnu, the Huns, and a number of people in central Asia who were also known as or came to be identified with the name "Hun" or "Iranian Huns". The most prominent of these were Chionites, the Kidarites, and the Hephthalites.[15]

Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen was the first to challenge the traditional approach, based primarily on the study of written sources, and to emphasize the importance of archaeological research.[16] Since Maenchen-Helfen's work, the identification of the Xiongnu as the Huns' ancestors has become controversial.[17] Additionally, several scholars have questioned the identification of the "Iranian Huns" with the European Huns.[18] Walter Pohl cautions that

none of the great confederations of steppe warriors was ethnically homogenous, and the same name was used by different groups for reasons of prestige, or by outsiders to describe their lifestyle or geographic origin. [...] It is therefore futile to speculate about identity or blood relationships between H(s)iung-nu, Hephthalites, and Attila's Huns, for instance. All we can safely say is that the name Huns, in late antiquity, described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors.[19]

 
Arrival of the Huns in Pannonia (Chronicon Pictum, 1358)

Today, there is "no general consensus" and that "scholarship is divided" on the issue of a Hun-Xiongnu connection.[20] Recent supporters of a connection between the Huns and Xiongnu include Hyun Jin Kim and Etienne de la Vaissière. De la Vaissière argues that ancient Chinese and Indian sources used Xiongnu and Hun to translate each other,[21] and that the various "Iranian Huns" were similarly identified with the Xiongnu.[22] Kim believes that the term Hun was "not primarily an ethnic group, but a political category"[23] and argues for a fundamental political and cultural continuity between the Xiongnu and the European Huns,[24] as well as between the Xiongnu and the "Iranian Huns".[25]

Etymology

The name Hun is attested in classical European sources as Greek Οὖννοι (Ounnoi) and Latin Hunni or Chuni.[26][27] John Malalas records their name as Οὖννα (Ounna).[28] Another possible Greek variant may be Χοὖνοι (Khounoi), although this group's identification with the Huns is disputed.[29] Classical sources also frequently use the names of older and unrelated steppe nomads instead of the name Hun, calling them Massagetae, Scythians, and Cimmerians, among other names.[30]

The etymology of Hun is unclear. Various proposed etymologies generally assume at least that the names of the various Eurasian groups known as Huns are related. There have been a number of proposed Turkic etymologies, deriving the name variously from Turkic ön, öna (to grow), qun (glutton), kün, gün, a plural suffix "supposedly meaning 'people'",[31] qun (force), and hün (ferocious).[31] Maenchen-Helfen dismisses all of these Turkic etymologies as "mere guesses"[32] and proposes an Iranian etymology, from a word akin to Avestan hūnarā (skill), hūnaravant- (skillful). He suggests that it may originally have designated a rank rather than an ethnicity.[33] Robert Werner has advanced an etymology from Tocharian ku (dog), suggesting—as the Chinese called the Xiongnu dogs—that the dog was the totem animal of the Hunnic tribe. He also compares the name Massagetae, noting that the element saka in that name means dog.[34] Others such as Harold Bailey, S. Parlato, and Jamsheed Choksy have argued that the name derives from an Iranian word akin to Avestan Ẋyaona, and was a generalized term meaning "hostiles, opponents".[35] Christopher Atwood dismisses this possibility on phonological and chronological grounds.[36] While not arriving at an etymology per se, Atwood derives the name from the Ongi River in Mongolia, which was pronounced the same as, or similarly to, the name Xiongnu, and suggests that it was originally a dynastic name rather than an ethnic name.[37]

Physical appearance

 
A reconstruction of Attila by George S. Stuart, Museum of Ventura County.

Most of the ancient descriptions of the Huns stress their strange appearance from a Roman perspective. These descriptions typically caricature the Huns as monsters.[38] Jordanes stresses that the Huns were short of stature, had tanned skin and round and shapeless heads.[39] Various writers mention that the Huns had small eyes and flat noses.[40] The Roman writer Priscus gives the following eyewitness description of Attila: "Short of stature, with a broad chest and a large head; his eyes were small, his beard thin and sprinkled with grey; and he had a flat nose and tanned skin, showing evidence of his origin."[41]

Many scholars take these to be unflattering depictions of East Asian (obsolete "Mongoloid") racial characteristics.[42] Maenchen-Helfen argues that, while many Huns had East Asian racial characteristics, they were unlikely to have looked as Asiatic as the Yakut or Tungus.[43] He notes that archaeological finds of presumed Huns suggest that they were a racially mixed group containing only some individuals with East Asian features.[44] Kim similarly cautions against seeing the Huns as a homogenous racial group,[45] while still arguing that they were "partially or predominantly of Mongoloid extraction (at least initially)."[46] Some archaeologists have argued that archaeological finds have failed to prove that the Huns had any "Mongoloid" features at all,[47] and some scholars have argued that the Huns were predominantly "Caucasian" in appearance.[48] Other archaeologists have argued that "Mongoloid" features are found primarily among members of the Hunnic aristocracy,[49] which, however, also included Germanic leaders who were integrated into the Hun polity.[50] Kim argues that the composition of the Huns became progressively more "Caucasian" during their time in Europe; he notes that by the Battle of Chalons (451), "the vast majority" of Attila's entourage and troops appears to have been of European origin, while Attila himself seems to have had East Asian features.[51]

Genetics

Main article: Origin of the Huns § Genetic evidence

Genetic data is difficult to apply to steppe nomad societies, because they frequently migrated, intermixed, and were assimilated into each other. Nevertheless, genetics can supply information on migrations from East Asia to Europe and vice versa.[52]

In a genetic study of individuals from the around the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia dating from the late second century CE, Damgaard et al. 2018 found that these individuals represented a population of mixed East Asian and West Eurasian origin. They argued that this population descended from Xiongnu who expanded westward and mixed with Iranian Sakas.[53] This population in the Tian Shan mountains may be connected to the European Huns by individual burials that contains objects stylistically related to those used by the European Huns, although this could be a sign of the exchange of goods and the connections between elites rather than a sign of migration.[54]

As of 2023, there is little genetic data from the Carpathian basin in the Hunnic period (5th century), and the population living there during the Hunnic period shows a variety of genetic signatures.[55] Maróti et al. 2022 showed that the genomes of 9 Hun-era individuals who lived in the basin varied from European to Northeast Asian connections, with those individuals showing associations with Northeast Asia being most similar to groups found in Mongolia such as the Xiongnu and the Xianbei.[56][57] An analysis of Hun-era genomes by Gnecchi-Ruscone et al. 2022 likewise found a wide range of genetic variability, with two individuals showing a connection to ancient Northeast Asians and others showing European ancestry.[58]

History

Main article: History of the Huns

Before Attila

 
A suggested path of the Huns' movement westwards (labels in German)

The history of the Huns in the fourth century is not very clear, and the Huns left no sources themselves.[59] The Romans became aware of the Huns[a] when the latter's invasion of the Pontic steppes forced thousands of Goths to move to the Lower Danube to seek refuge in the Roman Empire in 376.[62] The Huns conquered the Alans, most of the Greuthungi or Eastern Goths, and then most of the Thervingi or Western Goths, with many fleeing into the Roman Empire.[63] In 395 the Huns began their first large-scale attack on the Eastern Roman Empire.[64] Huns attacked in Thrace, overran Armenia, and pillaged Cappadocia. They entered parts of Syria, threatened Antioch, and passed through the province of Euphratesia.[65] At the same time, the Huns invaded the Sasanian Empire. This invasion was initially successful, coming close to the capital of the empire at Ctesiphon; however, they were defeated badly during the Persian counterattack.[65]

 
The depicted battle is the legendary Battle of Zeiselmauer when the Huns conquered Pannonia from the Romans (Chronicon Pictum, 1358)

During their brief diversion from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Huns may have threatened tribes further west.[66] Uldin, the first Hun identified by name in contemporary sources,[67] headed a group of Huns and Alans fighting against Radagaisus in defense of Italy. Uldin was also known for defeating Gothic rebels who troubled the East Romans around the Danube and for beheading the Goth Gainas around 400–401. The East Romans began to feel the pressure from Uldin's Huns again in 408. Uldin crossed the Danube and pillaged Thrace. The East Romans tried to buy off Uldin, but his sum was too high so they instead bought off Uldin's subordinates. This resulted in many desertions from Uldin's group of Huns. Uldin himself escaped back across the Danube, after which he is not mentioned again in history.[68]

Hunnish mercenaries are mentioned on several occasions being employed by the East and West Romans, as well as the Goths, during the late 4th and 5th century.[69] In 433 some parts of Pannonia were ceded to them by Flavius Aetius, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire.[70]

Under Attila

 
A nineteenth century depiction of Attila. Certosa di Pavia – Medallion at the base of the facade. The Latin inscription tells that this is Attila, the scourge of God.

From 434 the brothers Attila and Bleda ruled the Huns together. Attila and Bleda were as ambitious as their uncle Rugila. In 435 they forced the Eastern Roman Empire to sign the Treaty of Margus,[71] giving the Huns trade rights and an annual tribute from the Romans. When the Romans breached the treaty in 440, Attila and Bleda attacked Castra Constantias, a Roman fortress and marketplace on the banks of the Danube.[72] War broke out between the Huns and Romans, and the Huns overcame a weak Roman army to raze the cities of Margus, Singidunum and Viminacium. Although a truce was concluded in 441, two years later Constantinople again failed to deliver the tribute and war resumed. In the following campaign, Hun armies approached Constantinople and sacked several cities before defeating the Romans at the Battle of Chersonesus. The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II gave in to Hun demands and in autumn 443 signed the Peace of Anatolius with the two Hun kings. Bleda died in 445, and Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns.

In 447, Attila invaded the Balkans and Thrace. The war came to an end in 449 with an agreement in which the East Romans agreed to pay Attila an annual tribute of 2100 pounds of gold. Throughout their raids on the Eastern Roman Empire, the Huns had maintained good relations with the Western Empire. However, Honoria, sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III, sent Attila a ring and requested his help to escape her betrothal to a senator. Attila claimed her as his bride and half the Western Roman Empire as dowry.[73] Additionally, a dispute arose about the rightful heir to a king of the Salian Franks. In 451, Attila's forces entered Gaul. Once in Gaul, the Huns first attacked Metz, then their armies continued westward, passing both Paris and Troyes to lay siege to Orléans. Flavius Aetius was given the duty of relieving Orléans by Emperor Valentinian III. A combined army of Roman and Visigoths then fought the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains.

 
Raphael's The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila depicts Pope Leo I, escorted by Saint Peter and Saint Paul, meeting with the Hun emperor outside Rome

The following year, Attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory in the Western Roman Empire. Leading his army across the Alps and into Northern Italy, he sacked and razed a number of cities. Hoping to avoid the sack of Rome, Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys, the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius, as well as Pope Leo I, who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua, and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the emperor. The new Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian then halted tribute payments, resulting in Attila planning to attack Constantinople. However, in 453 Attila died of a hemorrhage on his wedding night.[74]

After Attila

After Attila's death in 453, the Hunnic Empire faced an internal power struggle between its vassalized Germanic peoples and the Hunnic ruling body. Led by Ellak, Attila's favored son and ruler of the Akatziri, the Huns engaged the Gepid king Ardaric at the Battle of Nedao, who led a Germanic coalition to overthrow Hunnic imperial authority. The Amali Goths would revolt the same year under Valamir, allegedly defeating the Huns in a separate engagement.[75] However, this did not result in the complete collapse of Hunnic power in the Carpathian region, but did result in the loss of many of their Germanic vassals. At the same time, the Huns were also dealing with the arrival of more Oghur Turkic-speaking peoples from the East, including the Oghurs, Saragurs, Onogurs, and the Sabirs. In 463, the Saragurs defeated the Akatziri, or Akatir Huns, and asserted dominance in the Pontic region.[76]

The western Huns under Dengizich experienced difficulties in 461 when they were defeated by Valamir in a war against the Sadages, a people allied with the Huns.[77] His campaigning was also met with dissatisfaction from Ernak, ruler of the Akatziri Huns, who wanted to focus on the incoming Oghur speaking peoples.[76] Dengizich attacked the Romans in 467, without the assistance of Ernak. He was surrounded by the Romans and besieged, and came to an agreement that he would surrender if his people were given land for their herds and his starving forces given food. During the negotiations, a Hun in service of the Romans named Chelchel persuaded the enemy Goths to attack their Hun overlords. The Romans, under their General Aspar and with the help of his bucellarii, then attacked the quarreling Goths and Huns, defeating them.[78] In 469, Dengizich was defeated and killed in Thrace.[79]

After Dengizich's death, the Huns seem to have been absorbed by other ethnic groups such as the Bulgars.[79] Kim, however, argues that the Huns continued under Ernak, becoming the Kutrigur and Utigur Hunno-Bulgars.[76] This conclusion is still subject to some controversy. Some scholars also argue that another group identified in ancient sources as Huns, the North Caucasian Huns, were genuine Huns.[80] The rulers of various post-Hunnic steppe peoples are known to have claimed descent from Attila in order to legitimize their right to the power, and various steppe peoples were also called "Huns" by Western and Byzantine sources from the fourth century onward.[81]

Lifestyle and economy

Pastoral nomadism

The Huns have traditionally been described as pastoral nomads, living off of herding and moving from pasture to pasture to graze their animals.[82] Hyun Jin Kim, however, holds the term "nomad" to be misleading:

[T]he term 'nomad', if it denotes a wandering group of people with no clear sense of territory, cannot be applied wholesale to the Huns. All the so-called 'nomads' of Eurasian steppe history were peoples whose territory/territories were usually clearly defined, who as pastoralists moved about in search of pasture, but within a fixed territorial space.[46]

Maenchen-Helfen notes that pastoral nomads (or "seminomads") typically alternate between summer pastures and winter quarters: while the pastures may vary, the winter quarters always remained the same.[83] This is, in fact, what Jordanes writes of the Hunnic Altziagiri tribe: they pastured near Cherson on the Crimea and then wintered further north, with Maenchen-Helfen holding the Syvash as a likely location.[84] Ancient sources mention that the Huns' herds consisted of various animals, including cattle, horses, and goats; sheep, though unmentioned in ancient sources, "are more essential to the steppe nomad even than horses"[85] and must have been a large part of their herds.[84] Sheep bones are frequently found in Hun period graves.[86] Additionally, Maenchen-Helfen argues that the Huns may have kept small herds of Bactrian camels in the part of their territory in modern Romania and Ukraine, something attested for the Sarmatians.[87]

Ammianus Marcellinus says that the majority of the Huns' diet came from the meat of these animals,[88] with Maenchen-Helfen arguing, on the basis of what is known of other steppe nomads, that they likely mostly ate mutton, along with sheep's cheese and milk.[84] They also "certainly" ate horse meat, drank mare's milk, and likely made cheese and kumis.[89] In times of starvation, they may have boiled their horses' blood for food.[90]

Ancient sources uniformly deny that the Huns practiced any sort of agriculture.[91] Thompson, taking these accounts at their word, argues that "[w]ithout the assistance of the settled agricultural population at the edge of the steppe they could not have survived".[92] He argues that the Huns were forced to supplement their diet by hunting and gathering.[93] Maenchen-Helfen, however, notes that archaeological finds indicate that various steppe nomad populations did grow grain; in particular, he identifies a find at Kunya Uaz in Khwarezm on the Ob River of agriculture among a people who practiced artificial cranial deformation as evidence of Hunnic agriculture.[94] Kim similarly argues that all steppe empires have possessed both pastoralist and sedentary populations, classifying the Huns as "agro-pastoralist".[46]

Horses and transportation

 
Huns by Rochegrosse 1910 (detail)

As a nomadic people, the Huns spent a great deal of time riding horses: Ammianus claimed that the Huns "are almost glued to their horses",[95][96] Zosimus claimed that they "live and sleep on their horses",[97] and Sidonius claimed that "[s]carce had an infant learnt to stand without his mother's aid when a horse takes him on his back".[98] They appear to have spent so much time riding that they walked clumsily, something observed in other nomadic groups.[99] Roman sources characterize the Hunnic horses as ugly.[96] It is not possible to determine the exact breed of horse the Huns used, despite a relatively good description by the Roman writer Vegetius.[100] Sinor believes that it was likely a breed of Mongolian pony.[101] However, horse remains are absent from all identified Hun burials.[101] Based on anthropological descriptions and archaeological finds of other nomadic horses, Maenchen-Helfen believes that they rode mostly geldings.[102]

Besides horses, ancient sources mention that the Huns used wagons for transportation, which Maenchen-Helfen believes were primarily used to transport their tents, booty, and the old people, women, and children.[103]

Economic relations with the Romans

The Huns received a large amount of gold from the Romans, either in exchange for fighting for them as mercenaries or as tribute.[104] Raiding and looting also furnished the Huns with gold and other valuables.[105] Denis Sinor has argued that at the time of Attila, the Hunnic economy became almost entirely dependent on plunder and tribute from the Roman provinces.[106]

 
1910 Rochegrosse depiction of Roman villa in Gaul sacked by the hordes of Attila the Hun

Civilians and soldiers captured by the Huns might also be ransomed back, or else sold to Roman slave dealers as slaves.[107] The Huns themselves, Maenchen-Helfen argued, had little use for slaves due to their nomadic pastoralist lifestyle.[108] More recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated that pastoral nomadists are actually more likely to use slave labor than sedentary societies: the slaves would have been used to manage the Huns' herds of cattle, sheep, and goats.[109] Priscus attests that slaves were used as domestic servants, but also that educated slaves were used by the Huns in positions of administration or even architects. Some slaves were even used as warriors.[110]

The Huns also traded with the Romans. E. A. Thompson argued that this trade was very large scale, with the Huns trading horses, furs, meat, and slaves for Roman weapons, linen, and grain, and various other luxury goods.[111] While Maenchen-Helfen concedes that the Huns traded their horses for what he considered to have been "a very considerable source of income in gold", he is otherwise skeptical of Thompson's argument.[112] He notes that the Romans strictly regulated trade with the barbarians and that, according to Priscus, trade only occurred at a fair once a year.[113] While he notes that smuggling also likely occurred, he argues that "the volume of both legal and illegal trade was apparently modest".[113] He does note that wine and silk appear to have been imported into the Hunnic Empire in large quantities, however.[114] Roman gold coins appear to have been in circulation as currency within the whole of the Hunnic Empire.[115]

Connections to the Silk Road

Christopher Atwood has suggested that the purpose of the original Hunnic incursion into Europe may have been to establish an outlet to the Black Sea for the Sogdian merchants under their rule, who were involved in the trade along the Silk Road to China.[116] Atwood notes that Jordanes describes how the Crimean city of Cherson, "where the avaricious traders bring in the goods of Asia", was under the control of the Akatziri Huns in the sixth century.[116]

Empire and rule

Government

Hunnic governmental structure has long been debated. Peter Heather argues that the Huns were a disorganized confederation in which leaders acted completely independently and that eventually established a ranking hierarchy, much like Germanic societies.[117][118] Denis Sinor similarly notes that, with the exception of the historically uncertain Balamber, no Hun leaders are named in the sources until Uldin, indicating their relative unimportance.[69] Thompson argues that permanent kingship only developed with the Huns' invasion of Europe and the near-constant warfare that followed.[119] Regarding the organization of Hunnic rule under Attila, Peter Golden comments "it can hardly be called a state, much less an empire".[120] Golden speaks instead of a "Hunnic confederacy".[121] Kim, however, argues that the Huns were far more organized and centralized, with some basis in organization of the Xiongnu state.[122] Walter Pohl notes the correspondences of Hunnic government to those of other steppe empires, but nevertheless argues that the Huns do not appear to have been a unified group when they arrived in Europe.[123]

Ammianus wrote that the Huns of his day had no kings, but rather that each group of Huns instead had a group of leading men (primates) for times of war .[124] E.A. Thompson supposes that, even in war, the leading men had little actual power.[125] He further argues that they most likely did not acquire their position purely hereditarily.[126] Heather, however, argues that Ammianus merely meant that the Huns didn't have a single ruler; he notes that Olympiodorus mentions the Huns having several kings, with one being the "first of the kings".[117] Ammianus also mentions that the Huns made their decisions in a general council (omnes in commune) while seated on horseback.[127] He makes no mention of the Huns being organized into tribes, but Priscus and other writers do, naming some of them.[92]

The first Hunnic ruler known by name is Uldin. Thompson takes Uldin's sudden disappearance after he was unsuccessful at war as a sign that the Hunnic kingship was "democratic" at this time rather than a permanent institution.[128] Kim, however, argues that Uldin is actually a title and that he was likely merely a subking.[129] Priscus calls Attila "king" or "emperor" (βασιλέυς), but it is unknown what native title he was translating.[130] With the exception of the sole rule of Attila, the Huns often had two rulers; Attila himself later appointed his son Ellac as co-king.[131][132] Heather argues that by the time of the report of Olympiodorus, the Huns at some point developed a system of ranked kings, including a senior king by the time of Charaton.[118]

Priscus also speaks of "picked men" or logades (λογάδες) forming part of Attila's government, naming five of them.[133] Some of the "picked men" seem to have been chosen because of birth, others for reasons of merit.[134] Thompson argued that these "picked men" "were the hinge upon which the entire administration of the Hun empire turned":[135] he argues for their existence in the government of Uldin, and that each had command over detachments of the Hunnic army and ruled over specific portions of the Hunnic empire, where they were responsible also for collecting tribute and provisions.[136] Maenchen-Helfen, however, argues that the word logades denotes simply prominent individuals and not a fixed rank with fixed duties.[137] Kim affirms the importance of the logades for Hunnic administration, but notes that there were differences of rank between them, and suggests that it was more likely lower ranking officials who gathered taxes and tribute.[138] He suggests that various Roman defectors to the Huns may have worked in a sort of imperial bureaucracy.[139] Unlike the Iranian Huns, who quickly began to mint their own coinage, the European Huns did not strike their own coins.[59]

Extent of Hunnic territory

The extent of Hunnish control in Barbarian Europe is poorly understood, as it is not much covered in Roman sources.[140] It is generally assumed that they established an empire that stretched as far West as the Rhine and perhaps as far north as the Baltic, though it is difficult to establish its boundaries with certainty.[141] Some scholars, such as Otto Maenchen-Helfen and Peter Golden, believe that the extant of Attila's empire has been exaggerated and he probably only controlled Pannonia and some adjacent areas.[142]

In the 390s, the majority of the Huns were probably based around the Volga and Don on the Pontic Steppe.[143] But by the 420s, the Huns were based on Great Hungarian Plain, the only large grassland near the Roman empire capable of supporting large numbers of horses.[144] However, Aleksander Paroń believes that they likely continued to control the Pontic Steppe north of the Black Sea.[145] They had conquered the Hungarian Plain in stages. The precise date that they conquered the north bank of the Danube is unclear.[146] Maenchen-Helfen argued that they may have already taken control of it in the 370s.[147] The dates when they gained control of the Roman territory south of the Middle Danube, Pannonia Valeria and the other provinces of Pannonia, is likewise disputed, but probably in 406/407 and 431/433 respectively.[146] Otherwise, the Huns made no attempt to conquer or settle on Roman territory.[144] Following Attila's death, the Huns were driven out of Pannonia and some appear to have returned to the Pontic Steppe, while one group settled in Dobruja.[120]

One of the only written sources for the size of Attila's domain is given by the Roman historian Priscus.[148] Priscus refers to Attila ruling as far as the islands in the "ocean" (Ὠκεανός), but it is unclear if this meant the Baltic Sea or the world-encircling Ocean that the Greeks and Romans believed in. In either case, the description of Attila ruling as far as the islands in the "ocean" may be hyperbole.[149] Archaeology is often used to argue for an area having been under Hunnic control; however, nomadic peoples often control territories beyond their immediate settlement.[150] A large number of major finds from Silesia and Lesser Poland, north of the Carpathian Mountains, have been attributed to the time of Attila and associated with the nomadic milieu of the Huns.[151] While scholars have speculated about direct Hunnic control and settlement here, it is entirely unclear what kind of relationship the population of these regions had to the Huns.[152]

Subject peoples

The Huns ruled over numerous other groups, including Goths, Gepids, Sarmatians, Heruli, Alans, Rugi, Suevi, and Sciri, alongside other groups where they occasionally asserted control.[153] Peter Heather suggests that some of these groups were resettled along the Danube by the Huns.[154] Subject peoples of the Huns were led by their own kings.[155] Those recognized as ethnic Huns appear to have had more rights and status, as evidenced by the account of Priscus.[156]

Warfare

One of the principal sources of information on Hunnic warfare is Ammianus Marcellinus, who includes an extended description of the Huns' methods of war:

They also sometimes fight when provoked, and then they enter the battle drawn up in wedge-shaped masses, while their medley of voices makes a savage noise. And as they are lightly equipped for swift motion, and unexpected in action, they purposely divide suddenly into scattered bands and attack, rushing about in disorder here and there, dealing terrific slaughter; and because of their extraordinary rapidity of movement they are never seen to attack a rampart or pillage an enemy's camp. And on this account you would not hesitate to call them the most terrible of all warriors, because they fight from a distance with missiles having sharp bone, instead of their usual points, joined to the shafts with wonderful skill; then they gallop over the intervening spaces and fight hand to hand with swords, regardless of their own lives; and while the enemy are guarding against wounds from the sabre-thrusts, they throw strips of cloth plaited into nooses over their opponents and so entangle them that they fetter their limbs and take from them the power of riding or walking.[157]

Based on Ammianus' description, Maenchen-Helfen argues that the Huns' tactics did not differ markedly from those used by other nomadic horse archers.[96] He argues that the "wedge-shaped masses" (cunei) mentioned by Ammianus were likely divisions organized by tribal clans and families, whose leaders may have been called a cur. This title would then have been inherited as it was passed down the clan.[158] Like Ammianus, the sixth-century writer Zosimus also emphasizes the Huns' almost exclusive use of horse archers and their extreme swiftness and mobility.[159] These qualities differed from other nomadic warriors in Europe at this time: the Sarmatians, for instance, relied on heavily armored cataphracts armed with lances.[160] The Huns' use of terrible war cries are also found in other sources.[161] However, a number of Ammianus's claims have been challenged by modern scholars.[162] In particular, while Ammianus claims that the Huns knew no metalworking, Maenchen-Helfen argues that a people so primitive could never have been successful in war against the Romans.[163]

Hunnic armies relied on their high mobility and "a shrewd sense of when to attack and when to withdraw".[164] An important strategy used by the Huns was a feigned retreat—pretending to flee and then turning and attacking the disordered enemy. This is mentioned by the writers Zosimus and Agathias.[96] They were, however, not always effective in pitched battle, suffering defeat at Toulouse in 439, barely winning at the Battle of the Utus in 447, likely losing or stalemating at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451, and losing at the Battle of Nedao (454?).[165] Christopher Kelly argues that Attila sought to avoid "as far as possible, [...] large-scale engagement with the Roman army".[165] War and the threat of war were frequently-used tools to extort Rome; the Huns often relied on local traitors to avoid losses.[166] Accounts of battles note that the Huns fortified their camps by using portable fences or creating a circle of wagons.[167]

The Huns' nomadic lifestyle encouraged features such as excellent horsemanship, while the Huns trained for war by frequent hunting.[168] Several scholars have suggested that the Huns had trouble maintaining their horse cavalry and nomadic lifestyle after settling on the Hungarian Plain, and that this in turn led to a marked decrease in their effectiveness as fighters.[142][169]

The Huns are almost always noted as fighting alongside non-Hunnic, Germanic or Iranian subject peoples or, in earlier times, allies.[170] As Heather notes, "the Huns' military machine increased, and increased very quickly, by incorporating ever larger numbers of the Germani of central and eastern Europe".[171] At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, Attila is noted by Jordanes to have placed his subject peoples in the wings of the army, while the Huns held the center.[172]

Peter Heather notes that the Huns were able to successfully besiege walled cities and fortresses in their campaign of 441: they were thus capable of building siege engines.[173] Heather makes note of multiple possible routes for acquisition of this knowledge, suggesting that it could have been brought back from service under Aetius, acquired from captured Roman engineers, or developed through the need to pressure the wealthy silk road city states, and carried over into Europe.[174] David Nicolle agrees with the latter point, and even suggests they had a complete set of engineering knowledge including skills for constructing advanced fortifications, such as the fortress of Igdui-Kala in Kazakhstan.[175]


Society and culture

Artificial cranial deformation

 
Landesmuseum Württemberg deformed skull, early 6th century Allemannic culture.

Artificial cranial deformation, the process of artificially lengthening the skulls of babies by binding them, first appears in Europe on the Pontic Steppe in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, before spreading to the Carpathian basin, becoming common there in the 5th century.[176] During the Hun period, between 50% to 80% of all burials in the Carpathian basin contain individuals with artificial cranial deformation.[177] This chronology and its spread in Europe has been linked to nomadic invasions from Asia and in particularly the spread of the Huns,[178] with the argument that it was practiced by their nobility and then taking up by Germanic groups influenced by them, in particular the Gepids.[179][176] Some scholars argue that the practice was not originally introduced to Europe by the Huns, however, but rather with the Alans, with whom the Huns were closely associated, and Sarmatians.[180]

In Kim's view, the goal of this process was "to create a clear physical distinction between the nobility and the general populace".[181] Susanne Hakenbeck, however, notes that graves with individuals who had undergone artificial cranial deformation are not usually distinct from other individuals; she suggests instead that the process was used to show kinship and distinguish families, something attested for the practice in Mesoamerica.[176]

Languages

Further information: Hunnic language

A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire. Priscus noted that the Hunnic language differed from other languages spoken at Attila's court.[182] He recounts how Attila's jester Zerco made Attila's guests laugh also by the "promiscuous jumble of words, Latin mixed with Hunnish and Gothic."[182] Priscus said that Attila's "Scythian" subjects spoke "besides their own barbarian tongues, either Hunnish, or Gothic, or, as many have dealings with the Western Romans, Latin; but not one of them easily speaks Greek, except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian frontier regions".[183] Some scholars have argued that Gothic was used as the lingua franca of the Hunnic Empire.[184] Hyun Jin Kim argues that the Huns may have used as many as four languages at various levels of government, without any one being dominant: Hunnic, Gothic, Latin, and Sarmatian.[185]

As to the Hunnic language itself, there is no consensus on its relationship to other languages.[186] Only three words are recorded in ancient sources as being "Hunnic," all of which appear to be from an Indo-European language.[187] All other information on Hunnic is contained in personal names and tribal ethnonyms.[188] On the basis of these names, scholars have proposed that Hunnic may have been a Turkic language,[189] a language between Mongolic and Turkic,[190] an Eastern Iranian language,[191] or a Yeniseian language.[192] However, given the small corpus, many hold the language to be unclassifiable.[193]

Marriage and the role of women

The elites of the Huns practiced polygamy,[194] while the commoners were probably monogamous.[195] Ammianus Marcellinus claimed that the Hunnish women lived in seclusion; however, the first-hand account of Priscus shows them freely moving and mixing with men.[196] Priscus describes Hunnic women swarming around Attila as he entered a village, as well as the wife of Attila's minister Onegesius offering the king food and drink with her servants.[197] Priscus was able to enter the tent of Attila's chief wife, Hereca, without difficulty.[198]

Priscus also attests that the widow of Attila's brother Bleda was in command of a village that the Roman ambassadors rode through: her territory may have included a larger area.[198] Thompson notes that other steppe peoples, such as the Utigurs and the Sabirs, are known to have had female tribal leaders, and argues that the Huns probably held widows in high respect.[198] Due to the pastoral nature of the Huns' economy, the women likely had a large degree of authority over the domestic household.[194]

Religion

Almost nothing is known about the religion of the Huns.[199][200] Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus claimed that the Huns had no religion,[201] while the fifth-century Christian writer Salvian classified them as Pagans.[202] Jordanes' Getica also records that the Huns worshipped "the sword of Mars", an ancient sword that signified Attila's right to rule the whole world.[203] Maenchen-Helfen notes a widespread worship of a war god in the form of a sword among steppe peoples, including among the Xiongnu.[204] Denis Sinor, however, holds the worship of a sword among the Huns to be apocryphal.[205] Additionally, Maenchen-Helfen argues that, while the Huns themselves do not appear to have regarded Attila as divine, some of his subject people clearly did.[206] A belief in prophecy and divination is also attested among the Huns.[207][208][205] Maenchen-Helfen argues that the performers of these acts of soothsaying and divination were likely shamans.[b] Sinor also finds it likely that the Huns had shamans, although they are completely unattested.[210] Maenchen-Helfen further deduces a belief in water-spirits from a custom mentioned in Ammianus.[c] He furthermore suggests that the Huns may have made small metal, wooden, or stone idols, which are attested among other steppe tribes, and which a Byzantine source attests for the Huns in Crimea in the sixth century.[212] Moreover, he connects archaeological finds of Hunnish bronze cauldrons found buried near or in running water to possible rituals performed by the Huns in the Spring.[213]

John Man argues that the Huns of Attila's time likely worshipped the sky and the steppe deity Tengri, who is also attested as having been worshipped by the Xiongnu.[214] Maenchen-Helfen also suggests the possibility that the Huns of this period may have worshipped Tengri, but notes that the god is not attested in European records until the ninth century.[215] Worship of Tengri under the name "T'angri Khan" is attested among the Caucasian Huns in the Armenian chronicle attributed to Movses Dasxuranci during the later seventh-century.[210] Movses also records that the Caucasian Huns worshipped trees and burnt horses as sacrifices to Tengri,[210] and that they "made sacrifices to fire and water and to certain gods of the roads, and to the moon and to all creatures considered in their eyes to be in some way remarkable."[210]

There is some evidence for human sacrifice among the European Huns. Maenchen-Helfen argues that humans appear to have been sacrificed at Attila's funerary rite, recorded in Jordanes under the name strava.[216] Priscus claims that the Huns sacrificed their prisoners "to victory" after they entered Scythia, but this is not otherwise attested as a Hunnic custom and may be fiction.[217][205]

In addition to these Pagan beliefs, there are numerous attestations of Huns converting to Christianity and receiving Christian missionaries.[218][219] The missionary activities among the Huns of the Caucasus seem to have been particularly successful, resulting in the conversion of the Hunnish prince Alp Ilteber.[205] Attila appears to have tolerated both Nicene and Arian Christianity among his subjects.[220] However, a pastoral letter by Pope Leo the Great to the church of Aquileia indicates that Christian slaves taken from there by the Huns in 452 were forced to participate in Hunnic religious activities.[221]

Burials and burial customs

An account of the funeral of Attila is provided by Jordanes, who may derive it from Priscus:[222] Jordanes reports that the Huns cut their hair and disfigured their faces with swords as part of the rite, a widely attested custom among steppe peoples.[223] After this, Attila's custom was placed in a silk tent, and horsemen rode around it singing funeral dirges called a strava. The coffin was then covered in precious metals and buried secretly together with weapons, and the slaves who dug the grave were killed to keep the location secret.[224] Maenchen-Helfen suggests that the dirges and the horsemanship were likely separate events, with the latter possibly representing funereal horse races as found among other steppe peoples, while the killing of the slaves may have been a sacrifice.[225]

Although a great amount of archaeological material has been unearthed since 1945, as of 2005 there were only 200 that have plausibly identified as Hunnic, including both in the Carpathian Basin and the Pontic Steppe.[226] Hun-period burials identified with the nomadic milieu on the Eurasian steppe and in the Carpathian Basin typically feature rich deposits of grave goods, which modern archaeologists call Totenopfer (offerings to the dead).[227] However, the richest nomad-related burials have all been found in other locations than the Carpathian Basin, although this was Attila's center of power and one would expect to find elite burials clustered there.[228] Most burials from the Carpathian Basin match the material culture of the previously indigenous Germanic peoples; the dearth of Hun related burials may indicate that most Hunnish funerals may have disposed of the body in such a way that no remains were left, or that they adopted Germanic material culture.[229]

Frequently, nomad-related graves from the Hun period contain evidence of objects being burned, probably as part of the burial ceremonies.[230] The common nomadic practice of burying parts of animals, such as their shoulder blades or limbs, with the deceased is only attested rarely in the Carpathian Basin.[231] Likewise, while Central Asian and East European nomad burials frequently feature kurgans, these are entirely absent in the Carpathian basin.[230]

Material culture

 
Detail of Hunnish gold and garnet bracelet, 5th century, Walters Art Museum
Further information: Hunnic art

There are two sources for the material culture of the Huns: ancient descriptions and archaeology. Roman descriptions of the Huns are often highly biased, stressing the Huns' supposed primitiveness.[232][233] Unfortunately, the nomadic nature of Hun society means that they have left very little in the archaeological record.[234] It can be difficult to distinguish Hunnic archaeological finds from those of the Sarmatians, as both peoples lived in close proximity and seem to have had very similar material cultures. Kim thus cautions that it is difficult to assign any artifact to the Huns ethnically.[235]

Archaeologist Joachim Werner argued that the Huns developed a unique "Danubian" style of art that combined Asiatic goldsmithing techniques with the enormous amount of gold given as tribute to the Huns by the Romans; this style then influenced European art.[236] This polychrome and cloisonné style was applied both to jewelry and weapons.[237] Warwick Ball, however, argues that the decorated artifacts of the Hunnish period were probably made by local craftsmen for the Huns rather than by the Huns themselves.[238]

Cauldrons

 
A Hunnish cauldron

Archaeological finds have produced a large number of cauldrons that have since the work of Paul Reinecke in 1896 been identified as having been produced by the Huns.[239] Although typically described as "bronze cauldrons", the cauldrons are often made of copper, which is generally of poor quality.[240] Maenchen-Helfen lists 19 known finds of Hunnish cauldrons from all over Central and Eastern Europe and Western Siberia.[241] He argues from the state of the bronze castings that the Huns were not very good metalsmiths, and that it is likely that the cauldrons were cast in the same locations where they were found.[242] They come in various shapes, and are sometimes found together with vessels of various other origins.[243] Maenchen-Helfen argues that the cauldrons were cooking vessels for boiling meat,[244] but that the fact that many are found deposited near water and were generally not buried with individuals may indicate a sacral usage as well.[245] The cauldrons appear to derive from those used by the Xiongnu.[246][247]

Clothing and jewelry

 
A Hunnish oval openwork fibula set with a carnelian and decorated with a geometric pattern of gold wire, 4th century, Walters Art Museum

Good descriptions of Hun period clothing, known from contemporary Central Asian burials to have probably been the khalat, are lacking in Greco-Roman sources.[248] The East Roman historian Priscus reports seeing a Greek merchant who he took for a Hun due to his wearing "Scythian" clothing; this appears to show that the Huns wore a distinct outfit that was part of ethnic identification.[249] Ammianus reports that the Huns wore clothes made of linen or the furs of mice and leggings of goatskin, which they did not wash.[85] While the use of furs and linen may be accurate, the description of the Huns in dirty animal skins and wearing the skins of mice is clearly derived from negative stereotypes and topoi about primitive barbarians.[250] Priscus also mentions the use of various expensive and rare animal furs, and mentions the handmaidens of Attila's queen Kreka weaving decorative linen.[251]

Using finds from modern Kazakhstan, archaeologist Joachim Werner has described Hunnic clothing as probably consisting of knee-length, sleeved smocks (the khalat), which were sometimes made of silk, as well as trousers and leather boots.[252] Saint Jerome and Ammianus both describe the Huns as wearing a round cap that was probably made of felt.[253] Because nomadic clothing had no need for brooches, the absence of this otherwise common item in some Barbarian burials may indicate Hunnic cultural influence.[254] A now headless copper-plated Hun-period figurine discovered at Bántapuszta near Veszprém, Hungary, shows a man in armor whose pants and collars have been decorated by ringlets.[255] Archaeological finds indicate that the Huns wore gold plaques as ornaments on their clothing, as well as imported glass beads.[256] The golden plaques were probably used to decorate the hems of both male and female festive clothing; this fashion seems to have been adopted both by the Huns and East Germanic elites.[257]

Both ancient sources and archaeological finds from graves confirm that the Hunnic women wore elaborately decorated golden or gold-plated diadems.[258] These diadems, as well as elements of bonnets, were probably symbols of rulership.[259] In 1973, Maenchen-Helfen listed a total of six known Hunnish diadems.[260] Women are also found buried with small mirrors of an originally Chinese type, which often appear to have been intentionally broken when placed into a grave.[261] Hunnic women seem to have worn necklaces and bracelets of mostly imported beads of various materials as well.[262] Men are often found buried with single or paired earrings and, unusually for a nomadic people, bronze or golden neck rings.[259]

According to Maenchen-Helfen, the Huns' shoes were likely made of sheep's leather.[84] The Bántapuszta figurine is wearing high, bulky boots that are connected to the warrior's chainmail by straps, of a type also described by Priscus.[263] Both men and women have been found wearing shoe buckles made of gold and jewels in Eastern Europe, but of iron or bronze in Central Asia; the golden shoe buckles are also found in non-Hunnic graves in Europe.[259]

Tents and dwellings

Ammianus reports that the Huns had no buildings,[264] but in passing mentions that the Huns possessed tents and also lived in wagons.[163] No tents or wagons have been found in Hunnic archaeological contexts as they were evidently not buried with the deceased.[86] Maenchen-Helfen believes that the Huns likely had "tents of felt and sheepskin": Priscus once mentions Attila's tent, and Jordanes reports that Attila lay in state in a silk tent.[265] However, by the middle of the fifth century, Priscus mentions that the Huns owned permanent wooden houses, which Maenchen-Helfen believes were built by their Gothic subjects.[266]

Bows and arrows

Ancient Roman sources stress the importance of the bow to the Huns,[267] and it was the Huns' main weapon.[268] The Huns used a composite or reflex bow of what is often called the "Hun-type", a style that had spread to all steppe nomads on the Eurasian steppe by the beginning of the Hun period.[269] They measured between 120 to 150 centimeters. Examples are vary rare in the archaeological record, with finds in Europe clustering on the Pontic steppe and Middle Danube region.[268] The rarity of surviving examples means that making precise statements about the advantages of this weapon is challenging.[270] The bows were difficult to construct and probably objects of great value: They were made out of a flexible wood, strips of either antler or bone, and animal sinew.[271] The bone used to strengthen the bow made it more durable but probably less powerful.[272] The graves of figures identified as "princes" among the Huns have been found buried with golden, ceremonial bows in a wide area from the Rhine to the Dnieper.[273][274] Bows were buried with the object placed across the chest of the deceased.[275]

The bows shot larger arrows than the earlier "Scythian type" bows, with the appearance of iron, three-lobed arrowheads in the archaeological record taken as a sign of their spread.[269] Ammianus, while recognizing the importance of Hunnic bows, does not appear well informed about them and claims, among other things, that the Huns only used bone-pointed arrows.[276]

Riding gear

Riding equipment and harnesses are frequent finds from Hun-period burials.[277] The Huns did not have spurs, and so used whips to drive their horses; the handles of such whips have been found in nomad graves.[98] The Huns have customarily been considered the inventors of a wooden framed saddle.[269] Maenchen-Helfen, for instance, argued that the surviving ornamentation from nomad graves dating to the Hun period showed that the saddles must have had a wooden frame.[278] However, Oleksandr Symonenko argues more recent work has shown that the Huns still used an earlier style of saddle made of padding.[269]

The Huns are also commonly credited with having introduced the stirrup to Europe.[279] These appear to have been used by other Xiongnu successor groups in Asia from the 5th century CE onward.[280] However, no stirrups have been found in Hunnic burials, nor is there any textual evidence of their use.[281][282] Maenchen-Helfen also argues against the Huns having used stirrups, on the grounds that there is no evidence for their use after the end of the Hun empire even though they could easily have been copied by subject peoples.[98] Without stirrups, the Huns would not have had the stability to fight in close combat on horseback and thus appear to have preferred fighting using bows and arrows.[277] The lack of stirrups would have required special techniques for firing arrows from horseback.[283]

Armor

Defensive equipment and chainmail are rare finds in Hunnic period graves.[277] Ammianus makes no mention of any use of armor among the Huns.[284] However, it is believed that the Huns made use of lamellar armor, a style of armor popular among steppe nomads during this time.[269] Metal armor was probably a rarity.[284] The Huns may have used a type of helmet known as the Spangenhelm, but Hunnic nobles may have worn helmets of various types.[285]

Swords and other weapons

Ammianus reports that the Huns used iron swords,[286] and ceremonial swords, daggers, and decorated scabbards are frequent finds in Hun-period burials.[277] Additionally, pearls are often found with swords; these decorative elements may have had a religious meaning.[287] Beginning with Joachim Werner, archaeologists have argued that the Huns may have originated the fashion of decorating swords with cloisonné;[237] however, Philip von Rummel argues these swords show strong Mediterranean influence, are rare in the Carpathian Basin from the Hun period, and may have been produced by Byzantine workshops.[288]

Thompson is skeptical that the Huns could cast iron themselves,[286] but Maenchen-Helfen argues that "[t]he idea that the Hun horsemen fought their way to the walls of Constantinople and to the Marne with bartered and captured swords is absurd."[163] One characteristic sword used by the Huns and their subject peoples was the narrow-bladed long seax.[289] Since the work of J. Werner in the 1950s, many scholars have believed that the Huns introduced this type of sword to Europe.[290] In the earliest versions, these swords seem to have been shorter, stabbing weapons.[291] The Huns, along with the Alans and the Eastern Germanic peoples, also used a type of sword known as an East Germanic or Asian spatha, a long, double-edged iron sword with an iron cross-guard.[227] These swords would have been used to cut down enemies who had already been driven to flight by the Huns' volleys of arrows.[277] Roman sources also mention lassos as weapons used at close range to immobilize opponents.[292]

Some Huns or their subject peoples may also have carried heavy lances, as is attested for some Hunnic mercenaries in Roman sources.[293]

Legacy

In Christian hagiography

 
Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, by Hans Memling. The turbaned and armored figures represent Huns.

After the fall of the Hunnic Empire, various legends arose concerning the Huns. Among these are a number of Christian hagiographic legends in which the Huns play a role. In an anonymous medieval biography of Pope Leo I, Attila's march into Italy in 452 is stopped because, when he meets Leo outside Rome, the apostles Peter and Paul appear to him holding swords over his head and threatening to kill him unless he follows the pope's command to turn back.[294] In other versions, Attila takes the pope hostage and is forced by the saints to release him.[295] In the legend of Saint Ursula, Ursula and her 11,000 holy virgins arrive at Cologne on their way back from a pilgrimage just as the Huns, under an unnamed prince,[296] are besieging the city. Ursula and her virgins are killed by the Huns with arrows after they refuse the Huns' sexual advances. Afterwards, the souls of the slaughtered virgins form a heavenly army that drives away the Huns and saves Cologne.[297] Other cities with legends regarding the Huns and a saint include Orléans, Troyes, Dieuze, Metz, Modena, and Reims.[298] In legends surrounding Saint Servatius of Tongeren dating to at least the eighth century, Servatius is said to have converted Attila and the Huns to Christianity, before they later became apostates and returned to their paganism.[299]

In Germanic legend

 
The Huns (outside) set fire to their own hall to kill the Burgundians. Illustration from the Hundeshagen Codex of the Nibelungenlied.

The Huns also play an important role in Germanic heroic legends, which frequently convey versions of events from the migration period and were originally transmitted orally.[300] Memories of the conflicts between the Goths and Huns in Eastern Europe appear to be maintained in the Old English poem Widsith as well as in the Old Norse poem "The Battle of the Goths and Huns", which is transmitted in the thirteenth-century Icelandic Hervarar Saga.[301][302] Widsith also mentions Attila having been ruler of the Huns, placing him at the head of a list of various legendary and historical rulers and peoples and marking the Huns as the most famous.[303]

The name Attila, rendered in Old English as Ætla, was a given name in use in Anglo-Saxon England (e.g. Bishop Ætla of Dorchester) and its use in England at the time may have been connected to the heroic kings legend represented in works such as Widsith.[304] Maenchen-Helfen, however, doubts the use of the name by the Anglo-Saxons had anything to do with the Huns, arguing that it was "not a rare name."[305] Bede, in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, lists the Huns among other peoples living in Germany when Anglo-Saxons invaded England. This may indicate that Bede viewed the Anglo-Saxons as descending partially from the Huns.[306][307]

The Huns and Attila also form central figures in the two most-widespread Germanic legendary cycles, that of the Nibelungs and of Dietrich von Bern (the historical Theoderic the Great). The Nibelung legend, particularly as recorded in the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Völsunga saga, as well as in the German Nibelungenlied, connects the Huns and Attila (and in the Norse tradition, Attila's death) to the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine in 437.[308] In the legends about Dietrich von Bern, Attila and the Huns provide Dietrich with a refuge and support after he has been driven from his kingdom at Verona.[309]

A version of the events of the Battle of Nadao may be preserved in a legend, transmitted in two differing versions in the Middle High German Rabenschlacht and Old Norse Thidrekssaga, in which the sons of Attila fall in battle.[309] The legend of Walter of Aquitaine, meanwhile, shows the Huns to receive child hostages as tribute from their subject peoples.[310] Generally, the continental Germanic traditions paint a more positive picture of Attila and the Huns than the Scandinavian sources, where the Huns appear in a distinctly negative light.[311]

In medieval German legend, the Huns were identified with the Hungarians, with their capital of Etzelburg (Attila-city) being identified with Esztergom or Buda.[312] The Old Norse Thidrekssaga, however, which is based on North German sources, locates Hunaland in northern Germany, with a capital at Soest in Westphalia.[313] In other Old Norse sources, the term Hun is sometimes applied indiscriminately to various people, particularly from south of Scandinavia.[313][314] From the thirteenth-century onward, the Middle High German word for Hun, hiune, became a synonym for giant, and continued to be used in this meaning in the forms Hüne and Heune into the modern era.[315] In this way, various prehistoric megalithic structures, particularly in Northern Germany, came to be identified as Hünengräber (Hun graves) or Hünenbetten (Hun beds).[316][317]

Links to the Hungarians

See also: Hungarian prehistory and Origin of the Székelys
 
'Feast of Attila'. Hungarian romantic painting by Mór Than (1870).


Beginning in the High Middle Ages, Hungarian sources have claimed descent from or a close relationship between the Hungarians (Magyars) and the Huns. The claim appears to have first arisen in non-Hungarian sources and only gradually been taken up by the Hungarians themselves because of its negative connotations.[318][319][320] The Anonymous Gesta Hungarorum (after 1200) is the first Hungarian source to mention that the line of Árpádian kings were descendants of Attila, but he makes no claim that the Hungarian and Hun peoples are related.[321][322] The first Hungarian author to claim that Hun and Hungarian peoples were related was Simon of Kéza in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum (1282–1285).[323] Simon claimed that the Huns and Hungarians were descended from two brothers, named Hunor and Magor.[d] These claims gave the Hungarians an ancient pedegree and served to legitimize their conquest of Pannonia.[325][326][327]

Modern scholars largely dismiss these claims.[328][329][305][330] Regarding the claimed Hunnish origins found in these chronicles, Jenő Szűcs writes:

The Hunnish origin of the Magyars is, of course, a fiction, just like the Trojan origin of the French or any of the other origo gentis theories fabricated at much the same time. The Magyars in fact originated from the Ugrian branch of the Finno-Ugrian peoples; in the course of their wanderings in the steppes of Eastern Europe they assimilated a variety of (especially Iranian and different Turkic) cultural and ethnic elements, but they had neither genetic nor historical links to the Huns.[331]

Generally, the proof of the relationship between the Hungarian and the Finno-Ugric languages in the nineteenth century is taken to have scientifically disproven the Hunnic origins of the Hungarians.[332] Another claim, also derived from Simon of Kéza,[333] is that the Hungarian-speaking Székely people of Transylvania are descended from Huns, who fled to Transylvania after Attila's death, and remained there until the Hungarian conquest of Pannonia. While the origins of the Székely are unclear,[334] modern historians and archaeologists do not consider the Székelys to be of Hunnic origin due to a lack of evidence.[335]

 
Attila (right) as a king of Hungary together with Gyula and Béla I, Illustration for Il costume antico e moderno by Giulio Ferrario (1831).

László Makkai notes as well that some archaeologists and historians believe Székelys were a Hungarian tribe or an Onogur-Bulgar tribe drawn into the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 7th century by the Avars (who were identified with the Huns by contemporary Europeans).[336] Unlike in the legend, the Székely were resettled in Transylvania from Western Hungary in the eleventh century.[337] Their language similarly shows no evidence of a change from any non-Hungarian language to Hungarian, as one would expect if they were Huns.[338][339] While the Hungarians and the Székelys may not be descendants of the Huns, they were historically closely associated with Turkic peoples.[340] Pál Engel notes that it "cannot be wholly excluded" that Arpadian kings may have been descended from Attila, however, and believes that it is likely the Hungarians once lived under the rule of the Huns.[328] Hyun Jin Kim supposes that the Hungarians might be linked to the Huns via the Bulgars and Avars, both of whom he holds to have had Hunnish elements.[341]

While the notion that the Hungarians are descended from the Huns has been rejected by mainstream scholarship, the idea has continued to exert a relevant influence on Hungarian nationalism and national identity.[342] A majority of the Hungarian aristocracy continued to ascribe to the Hunnic view into the early twentieth century.[343] The Fascist Arrow Cross Party similarly referred to Hungary as Hunnia in its propaganda.[344] Hunnic origins also played a large role in the ideology of the modern radical right-wing party Jobbik's ideology of Pan-Turanism.[345] Legends concerning the Hunnic origins of the Székely minority in Romania, meanwhile, continue to play a large role in that group's ethnic identity.[346] Members of the Hungarian right wing, with the support of the government of prime minister Victor Orbán and academic institutions such as the Institute of Hungarian Research (Magyarságkutató Intézet, MKI), continue to promote Hungarian descent from the Huns.[347]

Modern associations with savagery

See also: List of terms used for Germans § Hun (pejorative)

Modern culture generally associates the Huns with extreme cruelty and barbarism.[7] During the First World War, Allied propaganda often called the Germans "Huns" in order to paint the Germans as savage barbarians; this usage continued to a limited extent during the Second World War as well.[348]

See also

Endnotes

  1. ^ There is a misconception, e.g. as expressed by World History Encyclopedia,[60] that Tacitus (c. 56 – c. 120 CE) had first mentioned the Huns in 91 CE. However, T. D. Barnes (1977) already pointed out that Tacitus had not at all mentioned the Huns; and that Orosius (c. 375/385 – c. 420 CE) did not ascribe knowledge about the Huns to Tacitus, but simply identified the contemporary Alans, Goths, and Huns with the Scythians whom Tacitus and Justin had already mentioned.[61]
  2. ^ He argues for the existence of Hunnic shamans on the basis of the presence of the element kam in the Hunnic names Atakam and Eskam, which he derives from the Turkic qam, meaning shaman.[209]
  3. ^ He derives this belief from a Hunnic custom, attested in Ammianus, that the Huns did not wash their clothes: among later steppe peoples, this is done to avoid offending the water-spirits.[211]
  4. ^ Szűcs argues that the name Hunor as a Hungarian ancestor is genuinely reflective of the Magyar oral legends, but that it actually derives from the name Onogur; Simon therefore merely used the resemblance of Hunor to Hun to support his theory.[324]

Citations

  1. ^ a b de la Vaissière 2015, p. 177.
  2. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 180.
  3. ^ a b de la Vaissière 2015, p. 175, 180.
  4. ^ Saag & Staniuk 2022.
  5. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 177; Heather 1995, p. 16.
  6. ^ Szűcs 1999, p. xliv; Engel 2001, p. 2; Lendvai 2003, p. 7; Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 386.
  7. ^ a b Sinor 1990, p. 177.
  8. ^ Haug, Robert (27 June 2019). The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-78831-722-1. the Róurán Khāqānate, a nomadic confederation that had ruled Mongolia from the mid-fourth until the mid-sixth century and whose rise to power may have initiated the Hunnic migrations of the fourth century.
  9. ^ Lomazoff, Amanda; Ralby, Aaron (August 2013). The Atlas of Military History. Simon and Schuster. p. 246. ISBN 978-1-60710-985-3.
  10. ^ Heather 2010, p. 502; de la Vaissière 2015, p. 176.
  11. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 7.
  12. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 20.
  13. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 5; Heather 2010, p. 209.
  14. ^ Wright 2011, p. 60.
  15. ^ Pohl 1999, p. 501.
  16. ^ de la Vaissière 2015, p. 175.
  17. ^ Wright 2011, p. 60; Thompson 1996, p. 1; Schottky 2004; Sinor 1990, p. 178; Heather 2005, pp. 148–149.
  18. ^ Schottky 2004; Sinor 1990, p. 200.
  19. ^ Pohl 1999, pp. 501–502.
  20. ^ Ball 2021, p. 174.
  21. ^ de la Vaissière 2015, pp. 178–180.
  22. ^ de la Vaissière 2015, pp. 181–183.
  23. ^ Kim 2015, p. 46.
  24. ^ Kim 2013, p. 31; Kim 2015, pp. 6–8.
  25. ^ Kim 2015, pp. 39, 44–53.
  26. ^ Doerfer 1973, p. 8.
  27. ^ Werner 1967, p. 528.
  28. ^ Atwood 2012, p. 31.
  29. ^ Kim 2015, p. 66.
  30. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 4–9.
  31. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1959, p. 237.
  32. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1959, p. 236.
  33. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1959, pp. 237–238.
  34. ^ Werner 1967, p. 555.
  35. ^ Atwood 2012, p. 30.
  36. ^ Atwood 2012, p. 40.
  37. ^ Atwood 2015, pp. 45–47.
  38. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 56–57; Sinor 1990, p. 202; Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 363.
  39. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 362.
  40. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 363.
  41. ^ Sinor 1997, p. 336.
  42. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 202; Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 363.
  43. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 364.
  44. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 364–367.
  45. ^ Kim 2015, p. 7.
  46. ^ a b c Kim 2015, p. 4.
  47. ^ Crubézy 1990, pp. 195–196.
  48. ^ Kim 2013, p. 187.
  49. ^ Molnár et al. 2014, p. 7.
  50. ^ Molnár et al. 2014, p. 6.
  51. ^ Kim 2015, p. 99.
  52. ^ Kradin 2018.
  53. ^ Damgaard et al. 2018, pp. 369–371.
  54. ^ Brosseder 2018, p. 184.
  55. ^ Borbély et al. 2023, p. 18.
  56. ^ Saag & Staniuk 2022, p. 739.
  57. ^ Maróti et al. 2022.
  58. ^ Gnecchi-Ruscone et al. 2022.
  59. ^ a b Kulikowski 2019, p. 77.
  60. ^ Mark, Joshua J. (2018). "Huns". World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23 November 2022.
  61. ^ Barnes 1977, p. 225.
  62. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 153–154.
  63. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 151–152.
  64. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 30–31.
  65. ^ a b Sinor 1990, p. 184.
  66. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 32–33.
  67. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 33.
  68. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 185.
  69. ^ a b Sinor 1990, p. 181.
  70. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 178.
  71. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 136.
  72. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 87–89.
  73. ^ Halsall 2007, pp. 251–252.
  74. ^ Schütte 1921, pp. 296, 306.
  75. ^ Heather 1996, p. 124.
  76. ^ a b c Kim 2013, p. 123.
  77. ^ Heather 1996, p. 125.
  78. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 165–168.
  79. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 168.
  80. ^ Kim 2015, p. 136; Sinor 2005, p. 4228.
  81. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, p. 309.
  82. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 169–179; Thompson 1996, pp. 46–47; Kim 2015, p. 2.
  83. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 170–171.
  84. ^ a b c d Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 171.
  85. ^ a b Thompson 1996, p. 47.
  86. ^ a b Anke 2010, p. 521.
  87. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 172–174.
  88. ^ Ammianus 31.2.3
  89. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 220.
  90. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 220–221.
  91. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 174.
  92. ^ a b Thompson 1996, p. 48.
  93. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 47–48.
  94. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 174–178.
  95. ^ Ammianus 31.2.6
  96. ^ a b c d Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 203.
  97. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 57.
  98. ^ a b c Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 206.
  99. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 207.
  100. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 205–206.
  101. ^ a b Sinor 1990, p. 203.
  102. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 213–214.
  103. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 214–220.
  104. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 182–183.
  105. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 184–185.
  106. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 205.
  107. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 184, 199.
  108. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 199–200.
  109. ^ Lenski 2015, p. 239.
  110. ^ Lenski 2015, pp. 239–240.
  111. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 189–194.
  112. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 185.
  113. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 187.
  114. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 188–189.
  115. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 185–186.
  116. ^ a b Atwood 2012, p. 48.
  117. ^ a b Heather 1995, p. 11.
  118. ^ a b Heather 2005, p. 325.
  119. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 67–68.
  120. ^ a b Golden 1992, p. 92.
  121. ^ Golden 1992, p. 90, 92.
  122. ^ Kim 2015, pp. 81–89.
  123. ^ Pohl 2015, pp. 258–259.
  124. ^ Ammianus 31.2.4
  125. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 50.
  126. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 51.
  127. ^ Golden 1992, p. 88.
  128. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 64.
  129. ^ Kim 2015, p. 77.
  130. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 190.
  131. ^ Kim 2015, pp. 86–87.
  132. ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 143.
  133. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 192–193.
  134. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 179–181.
  135. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 183.
  136. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 181–183.
  137. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 194–195.
  138. ^ Kim 2015, pp. 83–84.
  139. ^ Kim 2015, p. 85.
  140. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 406.
  141. ^ Kelly 2015, pp. 196–197.
  142. ^ a b Golden 1992, p. 91.
  143. ^ Kelly 2015, p. 203.
  144. ^ a b Kelly 2015, p. 195.
  145. ^ Paroń 2021, p. 71.
  146. ^ a b Kulcsár & Istvánovits 2019, p. 167.
  147. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 43.
  148. ^ Wołoszyn 2020, p. 118.
  149. ^ Wołoszyn 2020, pp. 118–119.
  150. ^ Wołoszyn 2020, p. 121.
  151. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 371.
  152. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, pp. 408–409.
  153. ^ Heather 2015, p. 221.
  154. ^ Heather 2015, p. 222.
  155. ^ Pohl 1999, p. 502.
  156. ^ Heather 2015, pp. 224–225.
  157. ^ Ammianus Marcellinus, 31.2.8–9 (p. 385).
  158. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 202–203.
  159. ^ Heather 2005, p. 155.
  160. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 155–156.
  161. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 202.
  162. ^ Kim 2013, pp. 17–19.
  163. ^ a b c Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 12.
  164. ^ Kelly 2015, p. 204.
  165. ^ a b Kelly 2015, p. 205.
  166. ^ Golden 2002, p. 153.
  167. ^ Golden 2002, pp. 137–138.
  168. ^ Golden 2002, pp. 131–132.
  169. ^ Sinor 1990, p. 204.
  170. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 329–330.
  171. ^ Heather 2005, p. 332.
  172. ^ Golden 2002, pp. 133–134.
  173. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 301–302.
  174. ^ Heather 2005, p. 303.
  175. ^ Nicolle 2006, p. 18.
  176. ^ a b c Hakenbeck 2018.
  177. ^ Mayall, Pilbrow & Bitadze 2017, p. 3.
  178. ^ Kim 2015, pp. 164–165; Sinor 1990, pp. 202–203; Molnár et al. 2014, p. 2.
  179. ^ Crubézy 1990, p. 195.
  180. ^ Kim 2015, p. 165; Sinor 1990, pp. 202–203.
  181. ^ Kim 2015, p. 164.
  182. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 377.
  183. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 382.
  184. ^ Wolfram 1990, p. 254; Wolfram 1997, p. 142; Heather 2010, p. 329.
  185. ^ Kim 2013, pp. 30–31.
  186. ^ Ball 2021, p. 170.
  187. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 423–426; Pohl 1999, pp. 501–502.
  188. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 376.
  189. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973; Kim 2013, p. 30.
  190. ^ Pritsak 1982, p. 470.
  191. ^ Savelyev & Jeong 2020: "their identification with the speakers of Eastern Iranian (Bailey 1985 p. 25)"
  192. ^ Vajda 2013, pp. 4, 14, 48, 103–6, 108–9, 130–1, 135–6, 182, 204, 263, 286, 310.
  193. ^ Doerfer 1973, p. 50; Golden 1992, pp. 88–89; Sinor 1997, p. 336; Róna-Tas 1999, p. 208.
  194. ^ a b Thompson 1996, p. 187.
  195. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1959, pp. 233–234.
  196. ^ Thompson 1996, p. 185.
  197. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 186–187.
  198. ^ a b c Thompson 1996, p. 186.
  199. ^ Man 2005, p. 61.
  200. ^ Thompson 1946, p. 73.
  201. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 259.
  202. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 262.
  203. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 278-279.
  204. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 279-280.
  205. ^ a b c d Sinor 2005, p. 4229.
  206. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 274.
  207. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 167.
  208. ^ Thompson 1946, pp. 73–74.
  209. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 167–169.
  210. ^ a b c d Sinor 2005, p. 4228.
  211. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 259-260.
  212. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 278–296.
  213. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 306–330.
  214. ^ Man 2005, pp. 61–62.
  215. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1966, p. 80.
  216. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 278.
  217. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 287.
  218. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 262–263.
  219. ^ Thompson 1946, pp. 73–79.
  220. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 260–261.
  221. ^ Lenski 2015, p. 241.
  222. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 275.
  223. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 274–275.
  224. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 275–277.
  225. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 277–278.
  226. ^ Heather 2005, pp. 330–331.
  227. ^ a b Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 379.
  228. ^ Kulcsár & Istvánovits 2019, pp. 178–179.
  229. ^ Heather 2005, p. 331-332.
  230. ^ a b Anke 2010, p. 519.
  231. ^ Anke 2010, p. 520.
  232. ^ Man 2005, p. 79.
  233. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 9–17.
  234. ^ Thompson 1996, pp. 6–7.
  235. ^ Kim 2015, p. 166-167.
  236. ^ von Rummel 2007, p. 38, 354.
  237. ^ a b Kim 2015, p. 170.
  238. ^ Ball 2021, p. 196.
  239. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 306.
  240. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 321–322.
  241. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 307-318.
  242. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 320.
  243. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 323.
  244. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 326.
  245. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 327–330.
  246. ^ Kim 2015, p. 6.
  247. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 337.
  248. ^ von Rummel 2007, p. 119.
  249. ^ von Rummel 2007, p. 116.
  250. ^ von Rummel 2007, pp. 115–116.
  251. ^ von Rummel 2007, pp. 117, 119.
  252. ^ von Rummel 2007, pp. 116–117.
  253. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 171–172.
  254. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 389, 398.
  255. ^ Takáts 1963, p. 241.
  256. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 354–356.
  257. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 388.
  258. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 297.
  259. ^ a b c Anke 2010, p. 516.
  260. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 299–306.
  261. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 352–354.
  262. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 357.
  263. ^ Takáts 1963, p. 241-244.
  264. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 178.
  265. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 179.
  266. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 179–180.
  267. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 221.
  268. ^ a b Kazanski 2018, p. 408.
  269. ^ a b c d e Symonenko 2017.
  270. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 383.
  271. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, pp. 383–384.
  272. ^ Rumschlag 2016, p. 83.
  273. ^ Kim 2013, p. 203.
  274. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 384.
  275. ^ Rumschlag 2016, p. 82-83.
  276. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 221–222.
  277. ^ a b c d e Kazanski 2013, p. 513.
  278. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 209-210.
  279. ^ Crossley 2023.
  280. ^ Rumschlag 2016, p. 80.
  281. ^ Kazanski 2013, p. 514.
  282. ^ Rumschlag 2016, p. 85.
  283. ^ Rumschlag 2016, p. 86.
  284. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 241.
  285. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 252–253.
  286. ^ a b Thompson 1996, p. 59.
  287. ^ Anke 2010, pp. 518–519.
  288. ^ von Rummel 2007, pp. 346–348.
  289. ^ Rodzińska-Nowak 2020, p. 396.
  290. ^ Kiss 2014, pp. 132–133.
  291. ^ Kiss 2014, p. 135.
  292. ^ Heather 2005, p. 157.
  293. ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 239.
  294. ^ Eastman 2011, p. 88.
  295. ^ Man 2005, p. 291–292.
  296. ^ Man 2005, p. 294.
  297. ^ Montgomery 2010, pp. 16–17.
  298. ^ Man 2005, pp. 292–293.
  299. ^ Goossens et al. 2008, pp. 110–111.
  300. ^ Haymes & Samples 1996, pp. 8–14.
  301. ^ Uecker 1972, pp. 75–79.
  302. ^ Hedeager 2011, p. 179.
  303. ^ Hedeager 2011, p. 187.
  304. ^ Neidorf 2013, p. 172.
  305. ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 386.
  306. ^ Campbell 1986, p. 53, 123–124.
  307. ^ Neidorf 2013, p. 174–176.
  308. ^ Lienert 2015, pp. 35–36.
  309. ^ a b Lienert 2015, p. 99.
  310. ^ Lienert 2015, p. 72.
  311. ^ Uecker 1972, p. 63.
  312. ^ Gillespie 1973, pp. 79–80.
  313. ^ a b Gillespie 1973, p. 79.
  314. ^ Haymes & Samples 1996, p. 46.
  315. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961). Deutsches Wörterbuch. Vol. 10. Leipzig: Hirzel. p. 1942.
  316. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961). Deutsches Wörterbuch. Vol. 10. Leipzig: Hirzel. p. 1943.
  317. ^ Man 2005, p. 298.
  318. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, p. 424.
  319. ^ Lendvai 2003, pp. 7, 25–26.
  320. ^ Szűcs 1999, pp. xlv–xlvii.
  321. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, p. 423.
  322. ^ Szűcs 1999, p. xlvii.
  323. ^ Engel 2001, p. 121.
  324. ^ Szűcs 1999, p. lv.
  325. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, pp. 423–434.
  326. ^ Szűcs 1999, pp. liii–liv.
  327. ^ Lendvai 2003, p. 60.
  328. ^ a b Engel 2001, p. 2.
  329. ^ Lendvai 2003, p. 7.
  330. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, pp. 426–427.
  331. ^ Szűcs 1999, p. xliv.
  332. ^ Lafferton 2007, p. 717.
  333. ^ Róna-Tas 1999, p. 436.
  334. ^ Lendvai 2003, p. 24.
  335. ^ Borbély et al. 2023, p. 2.
  336. ^ Makkai 2001, pp. 415–416.
  337. ^ Makkai 2001, pp. 416–417.
  338. ^ Makkai 2001, pp. 414–415.
  339. ^ Engel 2001, p. 116.
  340. ^ Lendvai 2003, pp. 14–15.
  341. ^ Kim 2015, p. 140.
  342. ^ Akçalı & Korkut 2012, pp. 601–602.
  343. ^ Sommer 2017, p. 172.
  344. ^ Kamusella 2009, p. 474.
  345. ^ Kowalczyk 2017.
  346. ^ Lendvai 2003, pp. 23–24.
  347. ^ Kremmler 2022.
  348. ^ Man 2005, pp. 303–307.

References

  • Akçalı, Emel; Korkut, Umut (2012). "Geographical Metanarratives in East-Central Europe: Neo-Turanism in Hungary". Eurasian Geography and Economics. 53 (3): 596–614. doi:10.2747/1539-7216.53.5.596. S2CID 144370189.
  • Ammianus, Marcellinus (1939), AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS ROMAN ANTIQUITIES - Book XXXI (Vol. III of the Loeb Classical Library edition)
  • Anke, Bodo (2010) [2000]. "Hunnen § 6. Archäologisches". Germanische Altertumskunde Online. de Gruyter.
  • Atwood, Christopher P. (2012). "Huns and Xiōngnú: New Thoughts on an Old Problem". In Boeck, Brian J.; Martin, Russell E.; Rowland, Daniel (eds.). Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski. Cambridge University Press. pp. 27–52. ISBN 978-0-8-9357-404-8.
  • Atwood, Christopher P. (2015). "The Kai, the Khongai, and the Names of the Xiōngnú". International Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2: 35–63.
  • Ball, Warwick (2021). The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas. Edinburgh University Press. doi:10.1515/9781474488075. ISBN 9781474488075. S2CID 248348684.
  • Barnes, Timothy David (1977). "The Fragments of Tacitus' Histories". Classical Philology. 72 (3): 224–231. doi:10.1086/366355. JSTOR 268314. S2CID 161875316.
  • Borbély, Noémi; et al. (2023). "High Coverage Mitogenomes and Y-Chromosomal Typing Reveal Ancient Lineages in the Modern-Day Székely Population in Romania". Genes. 14 (1): 133. doi:10.3390/genes14010133. PMC 9858685. PMID 36672874.
  • Brosseder, Ursula (2018). "Xiongnu and Huns: Archaeological Perspectives on a Centuries-Old Debate about Identity and Migration". In Di Cosmo, Nicola (ed.). Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity: Rome, China, Iran, and the Steppe, ca. 250–750. Cambridge University Press. pp. 176–188. doi:10.1017/9781316146040.015.
  • Campbell, James (1986). Essays in Anglo-Saxon History. London: Hambledon Press. ISBN 978-0907628323. OCLC 458534293.
  • Crossley, Pamela (2023). "The Influence of Central Asia on Horse Use". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.494. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7.
  • Crubézy, Eric (1990). "Merovingian Skull Deformations from the Southwest of France". In Austin, David; Alcock, Leslie (eds.). From the Baltic to the Black Sea: Studies in Medieval Archaeology. London: Psychology Press. pp. 189–208 (195–196).
  • Damgaard, P. B.; et al. (9 May 2018). "137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes". Nature. Nature Research. 557 (7705): 369–373. Bibcode:2018Natur.557..369D. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0094-2. hdl:1887/3202709. PMID 29743675. S2CID 13670282. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  • Doerfer, Gerhard (1973). "Zur Sprache der Hunnen". Central Asiatic Journal. 17 (1): 1–50.
  • Eastman, David L. (2011). Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature.
  • Engel, Pál (2001). Ayton, Andrew (ed.). The realm of St. Stephen : a history of medieval Hungary, 895–1526. Translated by Pálosfalvi, Tamás. London, New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-1860640612.
  • Gillespie, George T. (1973). Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature, 700–1600: Including Named Animals and Objects and Ethnic Names. Oxford: Oxford University. ISBN 978-0198157182.
  • Gnecchi-Ruscone, Guido Alberto; Szécsényi-Nagy, Anna; Koncz, István; Csiky, Gergely; Rácz, Zsófia; Rohrlach, A. B.; Brandt, Guido; Rohland, Nadin; Csáky, Veronika; Cheronet, Olivia; Szeifert, Bea (14 April 2022). "Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans-Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites". Cell. 185 (8): 1402–1413.e21. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.007. ISSN 0092-8674. PMC 9042794. PMID 35366416. S2CID 247859905.
  • Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-03274-2.
  • Golden, Peter B. (2002). "War and warfare in the pre-Činggisid western steppes of Eurasia". In di Cosmo, Nicolo (ed.). Warfare in Inner Asian History (500–1800). Leiden, Boston, Cologne: Brill. pp. 105–172. doi:10.1163/9789004391789_005. ISBN 9789004391789.
  • Hakenbeck, Susanne (2018). "Infant Head Shaping in Eurasia in the First Millennium ad". In Crawford, Sally; Hadley, Dawn M.; Shepherd, Gillian (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood. Oxford University Press. pp. 483–504. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199670697.013.26.
  • Halsall, Guy (2007). Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511802393. ISBN 978-0521434911.
  • Haymes, Edward R.; Samples, Susan T. (1996). Heroic legends of the North: an introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich cycles. New York: Garland. ISBN 978-0815300335.
  • Heather, Peter (1996). The Goths. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
  • Heather, Peter (1995). "The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe". English Historical Review. 90 (435): 4–41. doi:10.1093/ehr/CX.435.4.
  • Heather, Peter (2010). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-973560-0.
  • Heather, Peter (2005). The fall of the Roman Empire : a new history of Rome and the barbarians. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 146–167. ISBN 978-0-19-515954-7.
  • Heather, Peter (2015). "The Huns and Barbarian Europe". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila. Cambridge University Press. pp. 209–229. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139128964.017. ISBN 978-1-107-63388-9.
  • Hedeager, Lotte (2011). "Knowledge production reconsidered". Iron Age myth and materiality : an archaeology of Scandinavia, AD 400–1000. Abingdon, Oxfordshire; New York: Routledge. pp. 177–190. ISBN 9780415606042. OCLC 666403125.
  • Heinric van Veldeken (2008). Goossens, Jan; Schlusemann, Rita; Voorwinden, Norbert (eds.). Sente Servas. Münster: agenda.
  • Jordanes (2006). Mierow, Charles Christopher Mierow (ed.). The Gothic History of Jordanes. Evolution Publishing. ISBN 978-1-889758-77-0.
  • Kamusella, Tomasz (2009). The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
  • Kazanski, Michel (2013). "Barbarian Military Equipment and its Evolution in the Late Roman and Great Migration Periods (3rd–5th C. A.D.)". In Sarantis, Alexander; Christie, Neil (eds.). War and Warfare in Late Antiquity. Brill. pp. 493–522. doi:10.1163/9789004252585_016. ISBN 9789004252585.
  • Kazanski, Michel (2018). "Bowmen's Graves from the Hunnic Period in Northern Illyricum". In Nagy; et al. (eds.). To Make a Fairy's Whistle from a Briar Rose:" Studies Presented to Eszter Istvánovits on her Sixtieth Birthday. Nyíregyháza: Jósa András Museum. pp. 407–17.
  • Kelly, Christopher (2015). "Neither Conquest nor Settlement: Attila's Empire and its Impact". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila. Cambridge University Press. pp. 193–208. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139128964.016. ISBN 978-1-107-63388-9.
  • Kim, Hyun Jin (2015). The Huns. Routledge. ISBN 9781138841758.
  • Kim, Hyun Jin (2013). The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511920493. ISBN 9781107009066.
  • Kiss, Attila P. (2014). "Huns, Germans, Byzantines? The Origins of the Narrow Bladed Long Seaxes". Acta Archaeologica Carpathica. 49: 131–164.
  • Kowalczyk, Michał (2017). "Hungarian Turanism. From the Birth of the Ideology to Modernity – an Outline of the Problem". Historia i Polityka. 20 (27): 49–63. doi:10.12775/HiP.2017.011.
  • Kradin, Nikolay (2018). "Ancient Steppe Nomad Societies". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.3. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7.
  • Kremmler, Katrin (2022). "'Eurasian Magyars': The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary". In Koranyi, James; Hanscam, Emily (eds.). Digging Politics: The Ancient Past and Contested Present in East-Central Europe. de Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 181–216. doi:10.1515/9783110697445. ISBN 9783110697445.
  • Kulcsár, Valéria; Istvánovits, Eszter (2019). "New Results in the Research on the Hun Age in the Great Hungarian Plain. Some Notes on the Social Stratification of Barbarian Society". In Hao, Chen (ed.). Competing Narratives between Nomadic People and their Sedentary Neighbours: Papers of the 7th International Conference on the Medieval History of the Eurasian Steppe Nov. 9–12, 2018 Shanghai University, China. University of Szeged. pp. 167–182.
  • Kulikowski, Michael (2019). The Tragedy of Empire: From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy. Harvard University Press. doi:10.4159/9780674242708.
  • Lafferton, Emese (2007). "The Magyar moustache: the faces of Hungarian state formation, 1867–1918". Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences. 38 (4): 706–732. doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2007.09.006. PMID 18053929.
  • Lendvai, Paul (2003). The Hungarians: A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat. Translated by Major, Ann. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400851522.
  • Lenski, Noel (2015). "Captivity Among the Barbarians and Its Impact on the Fate of the Roman Empire". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila. Cambridge University Press. pp. 230–246. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139128964.018. ISBN 978-1-107-63388-9.
  • Lienert, Elisabeth (2015). Mittelhochdeutsche Heldenepik. Berlin: Erich Schmidt. ISBN 978-3-503-15573-6.
  • Maenchen-Helfen, J. Otto (1966). "ΘΕΓΡΙ and Tengri". The American Journal of Philology. 87 (1): 80–83. doi:10.2307/292978. JSTOR 292978.
  • Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1973). Knight, Max (ed.). The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture. University of California Press. doi:10.1525/9780520310773. ISBN 978-0-520-01596-8.
  • Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1959). "The Ethnic Name Hun". In Egerod, Soren (ed.). Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren dedicata. Copenhagen. pp. 223–238.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  • Makkai, László (2001). "Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian kingdom (896–1526)". In Köpeczi, Béla (ed.). History of Transylvania. Vol. I. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 333–589.
  • Man, John (2005). Attila: The Barbarian who Challenged Rome. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780553816587.
  • Maróti, Zoltán; Neparáczki, Endre; Schütz, Oszkár (25 May 2022). "The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians". Current Biology. 32 (13): 2858–2870.e7. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.04.093. PMID 35617951. S2CID 246191357.
  • Mayall, Peter; Pilbrow, Varsha; Bitadze, Liana (2 February 2017). "Migrating Huns and modified heads: Eigenshape analysis comparing intentionally modified crania from Hungary and Georgia in the Migration Period of Europe". PlosOne. 12 (2): e0171064. Bibcode:2017PLoSO..1271064M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0171064. PMC 5289542. PMID 28152046.
  • Montgomery, Scott B. (2010). St. Ursula and the Eleven-Thousand Virgins of Cologne: Relics, Reliquaries and the Visual Culture of Group Sanctity in Medieval Europe. Oxford et al.: Peter Lang.
  • Molnár, Mónika; János, István; Szűcs, László; Szathmáry, László (April 2014). "Artificially deformed crania from the Hun-Germanic Period (5th–6th century AD) in northeastern Hungary: historical and morphological analysis". Journal of Neurosurgery. 36 (4): E1. doi:10.3171/2014.1.FOCUS13466. PMID 24684322.
  • Nicolle, David (2006). Attila and the Nomad Hordes. Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
  • Neidorf, Leonard (2013). "The Dating of Widsið and the Study of Germanic Antiquity". Neophilologus. 97 (1): 165–183. doi:10.1007/s11061-012-9308-2. ISSN 0028-2677. S2CID 163940868.
  • Paroń, Aleksander (2021). The Pechenegs: Nomads in the Political and Cultural Landscape of Medieval Europe. Brill. JSTOR 10.1163/j.ctv1v7zbmn.
  • Pohl, Walter (2015). "Migrations, Ethnic Groups, and State Building". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila (PDF). Cambridge University Press. pp. 246–263. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139128964.019. ISBN 978-1-107-63388-9.
  • Pohl, Walter (1999). "Huns". In Bowersock, G. W.; Brown, Peter; Grabar, Oleg (eds.). Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. pp. 501–502. ISBN 978-0-674-51173-6.
  • Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). (PDF). Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. IV (4): 428–476. ISSN 0363-5570. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 December 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  • Rodzińska-Nowak, Judyta (2020). "Early Migration Period Nomadic Finds". In Bursche, Aleksander; Hines, John; Zapolska, Anna (eds.). The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula. Brill. pp. 370–410. doi:10.1163/9789004422421_011. ISBN 9789004422421. S2CID 216441859.
  • Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Budapest: Central European University Press.
  • von Rummel, Philipp (2007). Habitus barbarus: Kleidung und Repräsentation spätantiker Eliten im 4. und 5. Jahrhundert. de Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783110918205.
  • Rumschlag, Samuel (2016). "One Bow (or Stirrup) Is Not Equal to Another: A Comparative Look at Hun and Mongol Military Technologies". The Silk Road. 16: 78–90.
  • Saag, Lehti; Staniuk, Robert (2022). "Historical human migrations: From the steppe to the basin". Current Biology. 32 (13): 38–41. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.058. PMID 35820383. S2CID 250443139.
  • Savelyev, Alexander; et al. (7 May 2020). "Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West". Evolutionary Human Sciences. Cambridge University Press. 2 (e20). doi:10.1017/ehs.2020.18. PMC 7612788. PMID 35663512.
  • Schottky, Martin (2004). "Huns". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  • Schütte, Gudmund (1921). "The Nibelungen Legend and Its Historical Basis" (PDF). The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 20 (3): 291–327. ISSN 0363-6941.
  • Sinor, Denis (1997). Studies in Medieval Inner Asia. Hampshire: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0860786320.
  • Sinor, Denis (1990). "The Hun Period". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge history of early Inner Asia (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 177–203. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521243049.008. ISBN 9780521243049.
  • Sinor, Denis (2005). "Hun Religion". In Jones, Lindsay (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 6 (2nd ed.). Macmillan Reference. pp. 4228–4229. ISBN 9780028657332. OCLC 56057973.
  • Sommer, Ulrike (2017). "Archaeology and nationalism". In Moshenska, Gabriel (ed.). Key Concepts in Public Archaeology. London: UCL Press. pp. 166–186. doi:10.2307/j.ctt1vxm8r7.16. ISBN 978-1-911576-41-9. JSTOR j.ctt1vxm8r7.16.
  • Symonenko, Olseksandr (2017). "Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.237. ISBN 978-0-19-027772-7.
  • Szűcs, Jenő (1999). "Theoretical Elements in Master Simon of Kéza's Gesta Hungarorum (1282–1285)". In Veszprémy, László; Schaer, Frank (eds.). Simon of Kéza: The Deeds of the Hungarians. Budapest: Central European University Press. pp. xxix–cii.
  • Takáts, Z. (1963). "Supplement to the Bántapuszta Hunnic Warrior". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 16 (2): 241–244. JSTOR 23682720.
  • Thompson, E. A. (1996). Heather, Peter (ed.). The Huns. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 978-0-631-15899-8.
  • Thompson, E. A. (1946). "Christian Missionaries among the Huns". Hermathena. 67: 73–79. JSTOR 23037831.
  • Uecker, Heiko (1972). Germanische Heldensage. Stuttgart: Metzler. ISBN 978-3476101068.
  • de la Vaissière, Étienne (2015). "The Steppe World and the Rise of the Huns". In Maas, Michael (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila. Cambridge University Press. pp. 175–192. doi:10.1017/CCO9781139128964.015. ISBN 978-1-107-63388-9.
  • Vajda, Edward J. (2013). Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide. Oxford/New York: Routledge.
  • Werner, Robert (1967). "Das früheste Auftreten des Hunnennamens Yüe-či und Hephthaliten". Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas. 15 (4): 487–558.
  • Wolfram, Herwig (1990). History of the Goths. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-5200-6983-1.
  • Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples. University of California Press. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-5200-8511-4.
  • Wołoszyn, Marcin (2020). "The Migration Period in Poland in the Light of Literary Sources". In Bursche, Aleksander; Hines, John; Zapolska, Anna (eds.). The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula. Brill. pp. 84–136. doi:10.1163/9789004422421_011. S2CID 216441859.
  • Wright, David Curtis (2011). The history of China (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara: Greenwood. ISBN 978-0-313-37748-8.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Huns.
  • Dorn'eich, Chris M. 2008. Chinese sources on the History of the Niusi-Wusi-Asi(oi)-Rishi(ka)-Arsi-Arshi-Ruzhi and their Kueishuang-Kushan Dynasty. Shiji 110/Hanshu 94A: The Xiongnu: Synopsis of Chinese original Text and several Western Translations with Extant Annotations. A blog on Central Asian history.
  • www.history.com/topics/ancient-china/huns
  • Eliot, Charles Norton Edgcumbe (1911). "Huns" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). pp. 932–933.

January 08, 2024
huns, redirects, here, other, uses, disambiguation, were, nomadic, people, lived, central, asia, caucasus, eastern, europe, between, century, according, european, tradition, they, were, first, reported, living, east, volga, river, area, that, part, scythia, ti. Hun redirects here For other uses see Hun disambiguation The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia the Caucasus and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD According to European tradition they were first reported living east of the Volga River in an area that was part of Scythia at the time 1 the Huns arrival in Europe is associated with the migration westward of an Iranian people the Alans 2 By 370 AD the Huns had arrived on the Volga and by 430 they had established a vast if short lived dominion in Europe conquering the Goths and many other Germanic peoples living outside of Roman borders and causing many others to flee into Roman territory Huns370s 469Territory under Hunnic control circa 450 ADCapitalAttila s CourtCommon languagesHunnic Gothic Various tribal languagesGovernmentTribal ConfederationKing or chief 370s Balamber c 395 Kursich and Basich c 400 409Uldin c 412 Charaton c 420s 430Octar and Rugila 430 435Rugila 435 445Attila and Bleda 445 453Attila 453 469Dengizich and Ernak 469 ErnakHistory Huns appear north west of the Caspian Seapre 370s Conquest of the Alans and Goths370s Attila and Bleda become co rulers of the united tribes437 Death of Bleda Attila becomes sole ruler445 Battle of the Catalaunian Plains451 Invasion of northern Italy452 Battle of Nedao454 Dengizich son of Attila dies469Preceded by Succeeded byAlansGreuthungiThervingiPannonia GepidsRugilandOstrogothic KingdomKingdom of the Suebi Danube The Huns especially under their King Attila made frequent and devastating raids into the Eastern Roman Empire In 451 they invaded the Western Roman province of Gaul where they fought a combined army of Romans and Visigoths at the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields and in 452 they invaded Italy After the death of Attila in 453 the Huns ceased to be a major threat to Rome and lost much of their empire following the Battle of Nedao c 454 Descendants of the Huns or successors with similar names are recorded by neighboring populations to the south east and west as having occupied parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia from about the 4th to 6th centuries Variants of the Hun name are recorded in the Caucasus until the early 8th century In the 18th century French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people who lived in northern China from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD 3 Since Guignes time considerable scholarly effort has been devoted to investigating such a connection The issue remains controversial but recent archaeogenetic studies show some Hun era individuals to have DNA similar to populations in ancient Mongolia 4 Their relationships with other entities such as the Iranian Huns and the Huna people of South Asia have also been disputed Very little is known about Hunnic culture and very few archaeological remains have been conclusively associated with the Huns They are believed to have used bronze cauldrons and to have performed artificial cranial deformation No description exists of the Hunnic religion of the time of Attila but practices such as divination are attested and the existence of shamans is likely It is also known that the Huns had a language of their own however only three words and personal names attest to it Economically the Huns are known to have practiced a form of nomadic pastoralism As their contact with the Roman world grew their economy became increasingly tied with Rome through tribute raiding and trade They do not seem to have had a unified government when they entered Europe but rather to have developed a unified tribal leadership in the course of their wars with the Romans The Huns ruled over a variety of peoples who spoke numerous languages and some maintained their own rulers Their main military technique was mounted archery The Huns may have stimulated the Great Migration a contributing factor in the collapse of the Western Roman Empire 5 The memory of the Huns also lived on in various Christian saints lives where the Huns play the roles of antagonists as well as in Germanic heroic legend where the Huns are variously antagonists or allies to the Germanic main figures In Hungary a legend developed based on medieval chronicles that the Hungarians and the Szekely ethnic group in particular are descended from the Huns However mainstream scholarship dismisses a close connection between the Hungarians and Huns 6 Modern culture generally associates the Huns with extreme cruelty and barbarism 7 Contents 1 Origin 1 1 Roman era sources 1 2 Relation to the Xiongnu and other peoples called Huns 1 3 Etymology 1 4 Physical appearance 1 5 Genetics 2 History 2 1 Before Attila 2 2 Under Attila 2 3 After Attila 3 Lifestyle and economy 3 1 Pastoral nomadism 3 2 Horses and transportation 3 3 Economic relations with the Romans 3 4 Connections to the Silk Road 4 Empire and rule 4 1 Government 4 2 Extent of Hunnic territory 4 3 Subject peoples 4 4 Warfare 5 Society and culture 5 1 Artificial cranial deformation 5 2 Languages 5 3 Marriage and the role of women 5 4 Religion 5 5 Burials and burial customs 6 Material culture 6 1 Cauldrons 6 2 Clothing and jewelry 6 3 Tents and dwellings 6 4 Bows and arrows 6 5 Riding gear 6 6 Armor 6 7 Swords and other weapons 7 Legacy 7 1 In Christian hagiography 7 2 In Germanic legend 7 3 Links to the Hungarians 7 4 Modern associations with savagery 8 See also 9 Endnotes 10 Citations 11 References 12 External linksOriginMain article Origin of the Huns nbsp 400ROURAN KHAGANATEKyrgyzsKokelGaojuTurksHYMYAREASTERNJINNORTHERNWEIVAKA TAKASGUPTAEMPIREKIDARITESXIONITESSASANIANEMPIREBYZANTINEEMPIREROMANEMPIREHUNSLombardsFranksTOCHARIANSPaleo SiberiansSamoyedsTungusMEROE class notpageimage The Eurasian Steppe Belt and main contemporary continental Asian polities circa 400 CE Towards the east of the Steppe Belt the rise of the powerful Rouran Khaganate may have encouraged the migration of the Huns to the west 8 On the other hand some historians have noted a high synchronicity between the reign of terror of Attila in the west and the southern expansion of the Hephthalites a vassal state of the Rourans with extensive territorial overlap between the Huns and the Hephthalites in Central Asia 9 The origins of the Huns and their links to other steppe people remain uncertain 10 scholars generally agree that they originated in Central Asia but disagree on the specifics of their origins Classical sources assert that they appeared in Europe suddenly around 370 1 Roman era sources Most typically Roman writers attempts to elucidate the origins of the Huns simply equated them with earlier steppe peoples 11 Roman writers repeated a tale that the Huns had entered the domain of the Goths while they were pursuing a wild stag or else one of their cows that had gotten loose across the Kerch Strait into Crimea Discovering the land good they then attacked the Goths 12 Jordanes Getica relates that the Goths held the Huns to be offspring of unclean spirits and Gothic witches Getica 24 121 13 Relation to the Xiongnu and other peoples called Huns nbsp Domain and influence of Xiongnu under Modu Chanyu around 205 BC the area hypothesised to have formed the cradle of Hun culture Since Joseph de Guignes in the 18th century modern historians have associated the Huns who appeared on the borders of Europe in the 4th century AD with the Xiongnu who had invaded numerous Central Plain polities from the Mongolian Plateau between the 3rd century BC and the 2nd century AD 3 After the devastating defeat by the Han dynasty the northern branch of the Xiongnu retreated north westward their descendants may have migrated through the Eurasian Steppe and consequently they may have some degree of cultural and genetic continuity with the Huns 14 Scholars also discussed the relationship between the Xiongnu the Huns and a number of people in central Asia who were also known as or came to be identified with the name Hun or Iranian Huns The most prominent of these were Chionites the Kidarites and the Hephthalites 15 Otto J Maenchen Helfen was the first to challenge the traditional approach based primarily on the study of written sources and to emphasize the importance of archaeological research 16 Since Maenchen Helfen s work the identification of the Xiongnu as the Huns ancestors has become controversial 17 Additionally several scholars have questioned the identification of the Iranian Huns with the European Huns 18 Walter Pohl cautions that none of the great confederations of steppe warriors was ethnically homogenous and the same name was used by different groups for reasons of prestige or by outsiders to describe their lifestyle or geographic origin It is therefore futile to speculate about identity or blood relationships between H s iung nu Hephthalites and Attila s Huns for instance All we can safely say is that the name Huns in late antiquity described prestigious ruling groups of steppe warriors 19 nbsp Arrival of the Huns in Pannonia Chronicon Pictum 1358 Today there is no general consensus and that scholarship is divided on the issue of a Hun Xiongnu connection 20 Recent supporters of a connection between the Huns and Xiongnu include Hyun Jin Kim and Etienne de la Vaissiere De la Vaissiere argues that ancient Chinese and Indian sources used Xiongnu and Hun to translate each other 21 and that the various Iranian Huns were similarly identified with the Xiongnu 22 Kim believes that the term Hun was not primarily an ethnic group but a political category 23 and argues for a fundamental political and cultural continuity between the Xiongnu and the European Huns 24 as well as between the Xiongnu and the Iranian Huns 25 Etymology The name Hun is attested in classical European sources as Greek Oὖnnoi Ounnoi and Latin Hunni or Chuni 26 27 John Malalas records their name as Oὖnna Ounna 28 Another possible Greek variant may be Xoὖnoi Khounoi although this group s identification with the Huns is disputed 29 Classical sources also frequently use the names of older and unrelated steppe nomads instead of the name Hun calling them Massagetae Scythians and Cimmerians among other names 30 The etymology of Hun is unclear Various proposed etymologies generally assume at least that the names of the various Eurasian groups known as Huns are related There have been a number of proposed Turkic etymologies deriving the name variously from Turkic on ona to grow qun glutton kun gun a plural suffix supposedly meaning people 31 qun force and hun ferocious 31 Maenchen Helfen dismisses all of these Turkic etymologies as mere guesses 32 and proposes an Iranian etymology from a word akin to Avestan hunara skill hunaravant skillful He suggests that it may originally have designated a rank rather than an ethnicity 33 Robert Werner has advanced an etymology from Tocharian ku dog suggesting as the Chinese called the Xiongnu dogs that the dog was the totem animal of the Hunnic tribe He also compares the name Massagetae noting that the element saka in that name means dog 34 Others such as Harold Bailey S Parlato and Jamsheed Choksy have argued that the name derives from an Iranian word akin to Avestan Ẋyaona and was a generalized term meaning hostiles opponents 35 Christopher Atwood dismisses this possibility on phonological and chronological grounds 36 While not arriving at an etymology per se Atwood derives the name from the Ongi River in Mongolia which was pronounced the same as or similarly to the name Xiongnu and suggests that it was originally a dynastic name rather than an ethnic name 37 Physical appearance nbsp A reconstruction of Attila by George S Stuart Museum of Ventura County Most of the ancient descriptions of the Huns stress their strange appearance from a Roman perspective These descriptions typically caricature the Huns as monsters 38 Jordanes stresses that the Huns were short of stature had tanned skin and round and shapeless heads 39 Various writers mention that the Huns had small eyes and flat noses 40 The Roman writer Priscus gives the following eyewitness description of Attila Short of stature with a broad chest and a large head his eyes were small his beard thin and sprinkled with grey and he had a flat nose and tanned skin showing evidence of his origin 41 Many scholars take these to be unflattering depictions of East Asian obsolete Mongoloid racial characteristics 42 Maenchen Helfen argues that while many Huns had East Asian racial characteristics they were unlikely to have looked as Asiatic as the Yakut or Tungus 43 He notes that archaeological finds of presumed Huns suggest that they were a racially mixed group containing only some individuals with East Asian features 44 Kim similarly cautions against seeing the Huns as a homogenous racial group 45 while still arguing that they were partially or predominantly of Mongoloid extraction at least initially 46 Some archaeologists have argued that archaeological finds have failed to prove that the Huns had any Mongoloid features at all 47 and some scholars have argued that the Huns were predominantly Caucasian in appearance 48 Other archaeologists have argued that Mongoloid features are found primarily among members of the Hunnic aristocracy 49 which however also included Germanic leaders who were integrated into the Hun polity 50 Kim argues that the composition of the Huns became progressively more Caucasian during their time in Europe he notes that by the Battle of Chalons 451 the vast majority of Attila s entourage and troops appears to have been of European origin while Attila himself seems to have had East Asian features 51 Genetics Main article Origin of the Huns Genetic evidence Genetic data is difficult to apply to steppe nomad societies because they frequently migrated intermixed and were assimilated into each other Nevertheless genetics can supply information on migrations from East Asia to Europe and vice versa 52 In a genetic study of individuals from the around the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia dating from the late second century CE Damgaard et al 2018 found that these individuals represented a population of mixed East Asian and West Eurasian origin They argued that this population descended from Xiongnu who expanded westward and mixed with Iranian Sakas 53 This population in the Tian Shan mountains may be connected to the European Huns by individual burials that contains objects stylistically related to those used by the European Huns although this could be a sign of the exchange of goods and the connections between elites rather than a sign of migration 54 As of 2023 there is little genetic data from the Carpathian basin in the Hunnic period 5th century and the population living there during the Hunnic period shows a variety of genetic signatures 55 Maroti et al 2022 showed that the genomes of 9 Hun era individuals who lived in the basin varied from European to Northeast Asian connections with those individuals showing associations with Northeast Asia being most similar to groups found in Mongolia such as the Xiongnu and the Xianbei 56 57 An analysis of Hun era genomes by Gnecchi Ruscone et al 2022 likewise found a wide range of genetic variability with two individuals showing a connection to ancient Northeast Asians and others showing European ancestry 58 HistoryMain article History of the Huns Before Attila nbsp A suggested path of the Huns movement westwards labels in German The history of the Huns in the fourth century is not very clear and the Huns left no sources themselves 59 The Romans became aware of the Huns a when the latter s invasion of the Pontic steppes forced thousands of Goths to move to the Lower Danube to seek refuge in the Roman Empire in 376 62 The Huns conquered the Alans most of the Greuthungi or Eastern Goths and then most of the Thervingi or Western Goths with many fleeing into the Roman Empire 63 In 395 the Huns began their first large scale attack on the Eastern Roman Empire 64 Huns attacked in Thrace overran Armenia and pillaged Cappadocia They entered parts of Syria threatened Antioch and passed through the province of Euphratesia 65 At the same time the Huns invaded the Sasanian Empire This invasion was initially successful coming close to the capital of the empire at Ctesiphon however they were defeated badly during the Persian counterattack 65 nbsp The depicted battle is the legendary Battle of Zeiselmauer when the Huns conquered Pannonia from the Romans Chronicon Pictum 1358 During their brief diversion from the Eastern Roman Empire the Huns may have threatened tribes further west 66 Uldin the first Hun identified by name in contemporary sources 67 headed a group of Huns and Alans fighting against Radagaisus in defense of Italy Uldin was also known for defeating Gothic rebels who troubled the East Romans around the Danube and for beheading the Goth Gainas around 400 401 The East Romans began to feel the pressure from Uldin s Huns again in 408 Uldin crossed the Danube and pillaged Thrace The East Romans tried to buy off Uldin but his sum was too high so they instead bought off Uldin s subordinates This resulted in many desertions from Uldin s group of Huns Uldin himself escaped back across the Danube after which he is not mentioned again in history 68 Hunnish mercenaries are mentioned on several occasions being employed by the East and West Romans as well as the Goths during the late 4th and 5th century 69 In 433 some parts of Pannonia were ceded to them by Flavius Aetius the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire 70 Under Attila nbsp A nineteenth century depiction of Attila Certosa di Pavia Medallion at the base of the facade The Latin inscription tells that this is Attila the scourge of God From 434 the brothers Attila and Bleda ruled the Huns together Attila and Bleda were as ambitious as their uncle Rugila In 435 they forced the Eastern Roman Empire to sign the Treaty of Margus 71 giving the Huns trade rights and an annual tribute from the Romans When the Romans breached the treaty in 440 Attila and Bleda attacked Castra Constantias a Roman fortress and marketplace on the banks of the Danube 72 War broke out between the Huns and Romans and the Huns overcame a weak Roman army to raze the cities of Margus Singidunum and Viminacium Although a truce was concluded in 441 two years later Constantinople again failed to deliver the tribute and war resumed In the following campaign Hun armies approached Constantinople and sacked several cities before defeating the Romans at the Battle of Chersonesus The Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II gave in to Hun demands and in autumn 443 signed the Peace of Anatolius with the two Hun kings Bleda died in 445 and Attila became the sole ruler of the Huns In 447 Attila invaded the Balkans and Thrace The war came to an end in 449 with an agreement in which the East Romans agreed to pay Attila an annual tribute of 2100 pounds of gold Throughout their raids on the Eastern Roman Empire the Huns had maintained good relations with the Western Empire However Honoria sister of the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III sent Attila a ring and requested his help to escape her betrothal to a senator Attila claimed her as his bride and half the Western Roman Empire as dowry 73 Additionally a dispute arose about the rightful heir to a king of the Salian Franks In 451 Attila s forces entered Gaul Once in Gaul the Huns first attacked Metz then their armies continued westward passing both Paris and Troyes to lay siege to Orleans Flavius Aetius was given the duty of relieving Orleans by Emperor Valentinian III A combined army of Roman and Visigoths then fought the Huns at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains nbsp Raphael s The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila depicts Pope Leo I escorted by Saint Peter and Saint Paul meeting with the Hun emperor outside RomeThe following year Attila renewed his claims to Honoria and territory in the Western Roman Empire Leading his army across the Alps and into Northern Italy he sacked and razed a number of cities Hoping to avoid the sack of Rome Emperor Valentinian III sent three envoys the high civilian officers Gennadius Avienus and Trigetius as well as Pope Leo I who met Attila at Mincio in the vicinity of Mantua and obtained from him the promise that he would withdraw from Italy and negotiate peace with the emperor The new Eastern Roman Emperor Marcian then halted tribute payments resulting in Attila planning to attack Constantinople However in 453 Attila died of a hemorrhage on his wedding night 74 After Attila After Attila s death in 453 the Hunnic Empire faced an internal power struggle between its vassalized Germanic peoples and the Hunnic ruling body Led by Ellak Attila s favored son and ruler of the Akatziri the Huns engaged the Gepid king Ardaric at the Battle of Nedao who led a Germanic coalition to overthrow Hunnic imperial authority The Amali Goths would revolt the same year under Valamir allegedly defeating the Huns in a separate engagement 75 However this did not result in the complete collapse of Hunnic power in the Carpathian region but did result in the loss of many of their Germanic vassals At the same time the Huns were also dealing with the arrival of more Oghur Turkic speaking peoples from the East including the Oghurs Saragurs Onogurs and the Sabirs In 463 the Saragurs defeated the Akatziri or Akatir Huns and asserted dominance in the Pontic region 76 The western Huns under Dengizich experienced difficulties in 461 when they were defeated by Valamir in a war against the Sadages a people allied with the Huns 77 His campaigning was also met with dissatisfaction from Ernak ruler of the Akatziri Huns who wanted to focus on the incoming Oghur speaking peoples 76 Dengizich attacked the Romans in 467 without the assistance of Ernak He was surrounded by the Romans and besieged and came to an agreement that he would surrender if his people were given land for their herds and his starving forces given food During the negotiations a Hun in service of the Romans named Chelchel persuaded the enemy Goths to attack their Hun overlords The Romans under their General Aspar and with the help of his bucellarii then attacked the quarreling Goths and Huns defeating them 78 In 469 Dengizich was defeated and killed in Thrace 79 After Dengizich s death the Huns seem to have been absorbed by other ethnic groups such as the Bulgars 79 Kim however argues that the Huns continued under Ernak becoming the Kutrigur and Utigur Hunno Bulgars 76 This conclusion is still subject to some controversy Some scholars also argue that another group identified in ancient sources as Huns the North Caucasian Huns were genuine Huns 80 The rulers of various post Hunnic steppe peoples are known to have claimed descent from Attila in order to legitimize their right to the power and various steppe peoples were also called Huns by Western and Byzantine sources from the fourth century onward 81 Lifestyle and economyPastoral nomadism The Huns have traditionally been described as pastoral nomads living off of herding and moving from pasture to pasture to graze their animals 82 Hyun Jin Kim however holds the term nomad to be misleading T he term nomad if it denotes a wandering group of people with no clear sense of territory cannot be applied wholesale to the Huns All the so called nomads of Eurasian steppe history were peoples whose territory territories were usually clearly defined who as pastoralists moved about in search of pasture but within a fixed territorial space 46 Maenchen Helfen notes that pastoral nomads or seminomads typically alternate between summer pastures and winter quarters while the pastures may vary the winter quarters always remained the same 83 This is in fact what Jordanes writes of the Hunnic Altziagiri tribe they pastured near Cherson on the Crimea and then wintered further north with Maenchen Helfen holding the Syvash as a likely location 84 Ancient sources mention that the Huns herds consisted of various animals including cattle horses and goats sheep though unmentioned in ancient sources are more essential to the steppe nomad even than horses 85 and must have been a large part of their herds 84 Sheep bones are frequently found in Hun period graves 86 Additionally Maenchen Helfen argues that the Huns may have kept small herds of Bactrian camels in the part of their territory in modern Romania and Ukraine something attested for the Sarmatians 87 Ammianus Marcellinus says that the majority of the Huns diet came from the meat of these animals 88 with Maenchen Helfen arguing on the basis of what is known of other steppe nomads that they likely mostly ate mutton along with sheep s cheese and milk 84 They also certainly ate horse meat drank mare s milk and likely made cheese and kumis 89 In times of starvation they may have boiled their horses blood for food 90 Ancient sources uniformly deny that the Huns practiced any sort of agriculture 91 Thompson taking these accounts at their word argues that w ithout the assistance of the settled agricultural population at the edge of the steppe they could not have survived 92 He argues that the Huns were forced to supplement their diet by hunting and gathering 93 Maenchen Helfen however notes that archaeological finds indicate that various steppe nomad populations did grow grain in particular he identifies a find at Kunya Uaz in Khwarezm on the Ob River of agriculture among a people who practiced artificial cranial deformation as evidence of Hunnic agriculture 94 Kim similarly argues that all steppe empires have possessed both pastoralist and sedentary populations classifying the Huns as agro pastoralist 46 Horses and transportation nbsp Huns by Rochegrosse 1910 detail As a nomadic people the Huns spent a great deal of time riding horses Ammianus claimed that the Huns are almost glued to their horses 95 96 Zosimus claimed that they live and sleep on their horses 97 and Sidonius claimed that s carce had an infant learnt to stand without his mother s aid when a horse takes him on his back 98 They appear to have spent so much time riding that they walked clumsily something observed in other nomadic groups 99 Roman sources characterize the Hunnic horses as ugly 96 It is not possible to determine the exact breed of horse the Huns used despite a relatively good description by the Roman writer Vegetius 100 Sinor believes that it was likely a breed of Mongolian pony 101 However horse remains are absent from all identified Hun burials 101 Based on anthropological descriptions and archaeological finds of other nomadic horses Maenchen Helfen believes that they rode mostly geldings 102 Besides horses ancient sources mention that the Huns used wagons for transportation which Maenchen Helfen believes were primarily used to transport their tents booty and the old people women and children 103 Economic relations with the Romans The Huns received a large amount of gold from the Romans either in exchange for fighting for them as mercenaries or as tribute 104 Raiding and looting also furnished the Huns with gold and other valuables 105 Denis Sinor has argued that at the time of Attila the Hunnic economy became almost entirely dependent on plunder and tribute from the Roman provinces 106 nbsp 1910 Rochegrosse depiction of Roman villa in Gaul sacked by the hordes of Attila the HunCivilians and soldiers captured by the Huns might also be ransomed back or else sold to Roman slave dealers as slaves 107 The Huns themselves Maenchen Helfen argued had little use for slaves due to their nomadic pastoralist lifestyle 108 More recent scholarship however has demonstrated that pastoral nomadists are actually more likely to use slave labor than sedentary societies the slaves would have been used to manage the Huns herds of cattle sheep and goats 109 Priscus attests that slaves were used as domestic servants but also that educated slaves were used by the Huns in positions of administration or even architects Some slaves were even used as warriors 110 The Huns also traded with the Romans E A Thompson argued that this trade was very large scale with the Huns trading horses furs meat and slaves for Roman weapons linen and grain and various other luxury goods 111 While Maenchen Helfen concedes that the Huns traded their horses for what he considered to have been a very considerable source of income in gold he is otherwise skeptical of Thompson s argument 112 He notes that the Romans strictly regulated trade with the barbarians and that according to Priscus trade only occurred at a fair once a year 113 While he notes that smuggling also likely occurred he argues that the volume of both legal and illegal trade was apparently modest 113 He does note that wine and silk appear to have been imported into the Hunnic Empire in large quantities however 114 Roman gold coins appear to have been in circulation as currency within the whole of the Hunnic Empire 115 Connections to the Silk Road Christopher Atwood has suggested that the purpose of the original Hunnic incursion into Europe may have been to establish an outlet to the Black Sea for the Sogdian merchants under their rule who were involved in the trade along the Silk Road to China 116 Atwood notes that Jordanes describes how the Crimean city of Cherson where the avaricious traders bring in the goods of Asia was under the control of the Akatziri Huns in the sixth century 116 Empire and ruleGovernment Hunnic governmental structure has long been debated Peter Heather argues that the Huns were a disorganized confederation in which leaders acted completely independently and that eventually established a ranking hierarchy much like Germanic societies 117 118 Denis Sinor similarly notes that with the exception of the historically uncertain Balamber no Hun leaders are named in the sources until Uldin indicating their relative unimportance 69 Thompson argues that permanent kingship only developed with the Huns invasion of Europe and the near constant warfare that followed 119 Regarding the organization of Hunnic rule under Attila Peter Golden comments it can hardly be called a state much less an empire 120 Golden speaks instead of a Hunnic confederacy 121 Kim however argues that the Huns were far more organized and centralized with some basis in organization of the Xiongnu state 122 Walter Pohl notes the correspondences of Hunnic government to those of other steppe empires but nevertheless argues that the Huns do not appear to have been a unified group when they arrived in Europe 123 Ammianus wrote that the Huns of his day had no kings but rather that each group of Huns instead had a group of leading men primates for times of war 124 E A Thompson supposes that even in war the leading men had little actual power 125 He further argues that they most likely did not acquire their position purely hereditarily 126 Heather however argues that Ammianus merely meant that the Huns didn t have a single ruler he notes that Olympiodorus mentions the Huns having several kings with one being the first of the kings 117 Ammianus also mentions that the Huns made their decisions in a general council omnes in commune while seated on horseback 127 He makes no mention of the Huns being organized into tribes but Priscus and other writers do naming some of them 92 The first Hunnic ruler known by name is Uldin Thompson takes Uldin s sudden disappearance after he was unsuccessful at war as a sign that the Hunnic kingship was democratic at this time rather than a permanent institution 128 Kim however argues that Uldin is actually a title and that he was likely merely a subking 129 Priscus calls Attila king or emperor basileys but it is unknown what native title he was translating 130 With the exception of the sole rule of Attila the Huns often had two rulers Attila himself later appointed his son Ellac as co king 131 132 Heather argues that by the time of the report of Olympiodorus the Huns at some point developed a system of ranked kings including a senior king by the time of Charaton 118 Priscus also speaks of picked men or logades logades forming part of Attila s government naming five of them 133 Some of the picked men seem to have been chosen because of birth others for reasons of merit 134 Thompson argued that these picked men were the hinge upon which the entire administration of the Hun empire turned 135 he argues for their existence in the government of Uldin and that each had command over detachments of the Hunnic army and ruled over specific portions of the Hunnic empire where they were responsible also for collecting tribute and provisions 136 Maenchen Helfen however argues that the word logades denotes simply prominent individuals and not a fixed rank with fixed duties 137 Kim affirms the importance of the logades for Hunnic administration but notes that there were differences of rank between them and suggests that it was more likely lower ranking officials who gathered taxes and tribute 138 He suggests that various Roman defectors to the Huns may have worked in a sort of imperial bureaucracy 139 Unlike the Iranian Huns who quickly began to mint their own coinage the European Huns did not strike their own coins 59 Extent of Hunnic territory The extent of Hunnish control in Barbarian Europe is poorly understood as it is not much covered in Roman sources 140 It is generally assumed that they established an empire that stretched as far West as the Rhine and perhaps as far north as the Baltic though it is difficult to establish its boundaries with certainty 141 Some scholars such as Otto Maenchen Helfen and Peter Golden believe that the extant of Attila s empire has been exaggerated and he probably only controlled Pannonia and some adjacent areas 142 In the 390s the majority of the Huns were probably based around the Volga and Don on the Pontic Steppe 143 But by the 420s the Huns were based on Great Hungarian Plain the only large grassland near the Roman empire capable of supporting large numbers of horses 144 However Aleksander Paron believes that they likely continued to control the Pontic Steppe north of the Black Sea 145 They had conquered the Hungarian Plain in stages The precise date that they conquered the north bank of the Danube is unclear 146 Maenchen Helfen argued that they may have already taken control of it in the 370s 147 The dates when they gained control of the Roman territory south of the Middle Danube Pannonia Valeria and the other provinces of Pannonia is likewise disputed but probably in 406 407 and 431 433 respectively 146 Otherwise the Huns made no attempt to conquer or settle on Roman territory 144 Following Attila s death the Huns were driven out of Pannonia and some appear to have returned to the Pontic Steppe while one group settled in Dobruja 120 One of the only written sources for the size of Attila s domain is given by the Roman historian Priscus 148 Priscus refers to Attila ruling as far as the islands in the ocean Ὠkeanos but it is unclear if this meant the Baltic Sea or the world encircling Ocean that the Greeks and Romans believed in In either case the description of Attila ruling as far as the islands in the ocean may be hyperbole 149 Archaeology is often used to argue for an area having been under Hunnic control however nomadic peoples often control territories beyond their immediate settlement 150 A large number of major finds from Silesia and Lesser Poland north of the Carpathian Mountains have been attributed to the time of Attila and associated with the nomadic milieu of the Huns 151 While scholars have speculated about direct Hunnic control and settlement here it is entirely unclear what kind of relationship the population of these regions had to the Huns 152 Subject peoples The Huns ruled over numerous other groups including Goths Gepids Sarmatians Heruli Alans Rugi Suevi and Sciri alongside other groups where they occasionally asserted control 153 Peter Heather suggests that some of these groups were resettled along the Danube by the Huns 154 Subject peoples of the Huns were led by their own kings 155 Those recognized as ethnic Huns appear to have had more rights and status as evidenced by the account of Priscus 156 Warfare One of the principal sources of information on Hunnic warfare is Ammianus Marcellinus who includes an extended description of the Huns methods of war They also sometimes fight when provoked and then they enter the battle drawn up in wedge shaped masses while their medley of voices makes a savage noise And as they are lightly equipped for swift motion and unexpected in action they purposely divide suddenly into scattered bands and attack rushing about in disorder here and there dealing terrific slaughter and because of their extraordinary rapidity of movement they are never seen to attack a rampart or pillage an enemy s camp And on this account you would not hesitate to call them the most terrible of all warriors because they fight from a distance with missiles having sharp bone instead of their usual points joined to the shafts with wonderful skill then they gallop over the intervening spaces and fight hand to hand with swords regardless of their own lives and while the enemy are guarding against wounds from the sabre thrusts they throw strips of cloth plaited into nooses over their opponents and so entangle them that they fetter their limbs and take from them the power of riding or walking 157 Based on Ammianus description Maenchen Helfen argues that the Huns tactics did not differ markedly from those used by other nomadic horse archers 96 He argues that the wedge shaped masses cunei mentioned by Ammianus were likely divisions organized by tribal clans and families whose leaders may have been called a cur This title would then have been inherited as it was passed down the clan 158 Like Ammianus the sixth century writer Zosimus also emphasizes the Huns almost exclusive use of horse archers and their extreme swiftness and mobility 159 These qualities differed from other nomadic warriors in Europe at this time the Sarmatians for instance relied on heavily armored cataphracts armed with lances 160 The Huns use of terrible war cries are also found in other sources 161 However a number of Ammianus s claims have been challenged by modern scholars 162 In particular while Ammianus claims that the Huns knew no metalworking Maenchen Helfen argues that a people so primitive could never have been successful in war against the Romans 163 Hunnic armies relied on their high mobility and a shrewd sense of when to attack and when to withdraw 164 An important strategy used by the Huns was a feigned retreat pretending to flee and then turning and attacking the disordered enemy This is mentioned by the writers Zosimus and Agathias 96 They were however not always effective in pitched battle suffering defeat at Toulouse in 439 barely winning at the Battle of the Utus in 447 likely losing or stalemating at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in 451 and losing at the Battle of Nedao 454 165 Christopher Kelly argues that Attila sought to avoid as far as possible large scale engagement with the Roman army 165 War and the threat of war were frequently used tools to extort Rome the Huns often relied on local traitors to avoid losses 166 Accounts of battles note that the Huns fortified their camps by using portable fences or creating a circle of wagons 167 The Huns nomadic lifestyle encouraged features such as excellent horsemanship while the Huns trained for war by frequent hunting 168 Several scholars have suggested that the Huns had trouble maintaining their horse cavalry and nomadic lifestyle after settling on the Hungarian Plain and that this in turn led to a marked decrease in their effectiveness as fighters 142 169 The Huns are almost always noted as fighting alongside non Hunnic Germanic or Iranian subject peoples or in earlier times allies 170 As Heather notes the Huns military machine increased and increased very quickly by incorporating ever larger numbers of the Germani of central and eastern Europe 171 At the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains Attila is noted by Jordanes to have placed his subject peoples in the wings of the army while the Huns held the center 172 Peter Heather notes that the Huns were able to successfully besiege walled cities and fortresses in their campaign of 441 they were thus capable of building siege engines 173 Heather makes note of multiple possible routes for acquisition of this knowledge suggesting that it could have been brought back from service under Aetius acquired from captured Roman engineers or developed through the need to pressure the wealthy silk road city states and carried over into Europe 174 David Nicolle agrees with the latter point and even suggests they had a complete set of engineering knowledge including skills for constructing advanced fortifications such as the fortress of Igdui Kala in Kazakhstan 175 Society and cultureArtificial cranial deformation nbsp Landesmuseum Wurttemberg deformed skull early 6th century Allemannic culture Artificial cranial deformation the process of artificially lengthening the skulls of babies by binding them first appears in Europe on the Pontic Steppe in the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE before spreading to the Carpathian basin becoming common there in the 5th century 176 During the Hun period between 50 to 80 of all burials in the Carpathian basin contain individuals with artificial cranial deformation 177 This chronology and its spread in Europe has been linked to nomadic invasions from Asia and in particularly the spread of the Huns 178 with the argument that it was practiced by their nobility and then taking up by Germanic groups influenced by them in particular the Gepids 179 176 Some scholars argue that the practice was not originally introduced to Europe by the Huns however but rather with the Alans with whom the Huns were closely associated and Sarmatians 180 In Kim s view the goal of this process was to create a clear physical distinction between the nobility and the general populace 181 Susanne Hakenbeck however notes that graves with individuals who had undergone artificial cranial deformation are not usually distinct from other individuals she suggests instead that the process was used to show kinship and distinguish families something attested for the practice in Mesoamerica 176 Languages Further information Hunnic language A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire Priscus noted that the Hunnic language differed from other languages spoken at Attila s court 182 He recounts how Attila s jester Zerco made Attila s guests laugh also by the promiscuous jumble of words Latin mixed with Hunnish and Gothic 182 Priscus said that Attila s Scythian subjects spoke besides their own barbarian tongues either Hunnish or Gothic or as many have dealings with the Western Romans Latin but not one of them easily speaks Greek except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian frontier regions 183 Some scholars have argued that Gothic was used as the lingua franca of the Hunnic Empire 184 Hyun Jin Kim argues that the Huns may have used as many as four languages at various levels of government without any one being dominant Hunnic Gothic Latin and Sarmatian 185 As to the Hunnic language itself there is no consensus on its relationship to other languages 186 Only three words are recorded in ancient sources as being Hunnic all of which appear to be from an Indo European language 187 All other information on Hunnic is contained in personal names and tribal ethnonyms 188 On the basis of these names scholars have proposed that Hunnic may have been a Turkic language 189 a language between Mongolic and Turkic 190 an Eastern Iranian language 191 or a Yeniseian language 192 However given the small corpus many hold the language to be unclassifiable 193 Marriage and the role of women The elites of the Huns practiced polygamy 194 while the commoners were probably monogamous 195 Ammianus Marcellinus claimed that the Hunnish women lived in seclusion however the first hand account of Priscus shows them freely moving and mixing with men 196 Priscus describes Hunnic women swarming around Attila as he entered a village as well as the wife of Attila s minister Onegesius offering the king food and drink with her servants 197 Priscus was able to enter the tent of Attila s chief wife Hereca without difficulty 198 Priscus also attests that the widow of Attila s brother Bleda was in command of a village that the Roman ambassadors rode through her territory may have included a larger area 198 Thompson notes that other steppe peoples such as the Utigurs and the Sabirs are known to have had female tribal leaders and argues that the Huns probably held widows in high respect 198 Due to the pastoral nature of the Huns economy the women likely had a large degree of authority over the domestic household 194 Religion Almost nothing is known about the religion of the Huns 199 200 Roman writer Ammianus Marcellinus claimed that the Huns had no religion 201 while the fifth century Christian writer Salvian classified them as Pagans 202 Jordanes Getica also records that the Huns worshipped the sword of Mars an ancient sword that signified Attila s right to rule the whole world 203 Maenchen Helfen notes a widespread worship of a war god in the form of a sword among steppe peoples including among the Xiongnu 204 Denis Sinor however holds the worship of a sword among the Huns to be apocryphal 205 Additionally Maenchen Helfen argues that while the Huns themselves do not appear to have regarded Attila as divine some of his subject people clearly did 206 A belief in prophecy and divination is also attested among the Huns 207 208 205 Maenchen Helfen argues that the performers of these acts of soothsaying and divination were likely shamans b Sinor also finds it likely that the Huns had shamans although they are completely unattested 210 Maenchen Helfen further deduces a belief in water spirits from a custom mentioned in Ammianus c He furthermore suggests that the Huns may have made small metal wooden or stone idols which are attested among other steppe tribes and which a Byzantine source attests for the Huns in Crimea in the sixth century 212 Moreover he connects archaeological finds of Hunnish bronze cauldrons found buried near or in running water to possible rituals performed by the Huns in the Spring 213 John Man argues that the Huns of Attila s time likely worshipped the sky and the steppe deity Tengri who is also attested as having been worshipped by the Xiongnu 214 Maenchen Helfen also suggests the possibility that the Huns of this period may have worshipped Tengri but notes that the god is not attested in European records until the ninth century 215 Worship of Tengri under the name T angri Khan is attested among the Caucasian Huns in the Armenian chronicle attributed to Movses Dasxuranci during the later seventh century 210 Movses also records that the Caucasian Huns worshipped trees and burnt horses as sacrifices to Tengri 210 and that they made sacrifices to fire and water and to certain gods of the roads and to the moon and to all creatures considered in their eyes to be in some way remarkable 210 There is some evidence for human sacrifice among the European Huns Maenchen Helfen argues that humans appear to have been sacrificed at Attila s funerary rite recorded in Jordanes under the name strava 216 Priscus claims that the Huns sacrificed their prisoners to victory after they entered Scythia but this is not otherwise attested as a Hunnic custom and may be fiction 217 205 In addition to these Pagan beliefs there are numerous attestations of Huns converting to Christianity and receiving Christian missionaries 218 219 The missionary activities among the Huns of the Caucasus seem to have been particularly successful resulting in the conversion of the Hunnish prince Alp Ilteber 205 Attila appears to have tolerated both Nicene and Arian Christianity among his subjects 220 However a pastoral letter by Pope Leo the Great to the church of Aquileia indicates that Christian slaves taken from there by the Huns in 452 were forced to participate in Hunnic religious activities 221 Burials and burial customs An account of the funeral of Attila is provided by Jordanes who may derive it from Priscus 222 Jordanes reports that the Huns cut their hair and disfigured their faces with swords as part of the rite a widely attested custom among steppe peoples 223 After this Attila s custom was placed in a silk tent and horsemen rode around it singing funeral dirges called a strava The coffin was then covered in precious metals and buried secretly together with weapons and the slaves who dug the grave were killed to keep the location secret 224 Maenchen Helfen suggests that the dirges and the horsemanship were likely separate events with the latter possibly representing funereal horse races as found among other steppe peoples while the killing of the slaves may have been a sacrifice 225 Although a great amount of archaeological material has been unearthed since 1945 as of 2005 there were only 200 that have plausibly identified as Hunnic including both in the Carpathian Basin and the Pontic Steppe 226 Hun period burials identified with the nomadic milieu on the Eurasian steppe and in the Carpathian Basin typically feature rich deposits of grave goods which modern archaeologists call Totenopfer offerings to the dead 227 However the richest nomad related burials have all been found in other locations than the Carpathian Basin although this was Attila s center of power and one would expect to find elite burials clustered there 228 Most burials from the Carpathian Basin match the material culture of the previously indigenous Germanic peoples the dearth of Hun related burials may indicate that most Hunnish funerals may have disposed of the body in such a way that no remains were left or that they adopted Germanic material culture 229 Frequently nomad related graves from the Hun period contain evidence of objects being burned probably as part of the burial ceremonies 230 The common nomadic practice of burying parts of animals such as their shoulder blades or limbs with the deceased is only attested rarely in the Carpathian Basin 231 Likewise while Central Asian and East European nomad burials frequently feature kurgans these are entirely absent in the Carpathian basin 230 Material culture nbsp Detail of Hunnish gold and garnet bracelet 5th century Walters Art MuseumFurther information Hunnic art There are two sources for the material culture of the Huns ancient descriptions and archaeology Roman descriptions of the Huns are often highly biased stressing the Huns supposed primitiveness 232 233 Unfortunately the nomadic nature of Hun society means that they have left very little in the archaeological record 234 It can be difficult to distinguish Hunnic archaeological finds from those of the Sarmatians as both peoples lived in close proximity and seem to have had very similar material cultures Kim thus cautions that it is difficult to assign any artifact to the Huns ethnically 235 Archaeologist Joachim Werner argued that the Huns developed a unique Danubian style of art that combined Asiatic goldsmithing techniques with the enormous amount of gold given as tribute to the Huns by the Romans this style then influenced European art 236 This polychrome and cloisonne style was applied both to jewelry and weapons 237 Warwick Ball however argues that the decorated artifacts of the Hunnish period were probably made by local craftsmen for the Huns rather than by the Huns themselves 238 Cauldrons nbsp A Hunnish cauldronArchaeological finds have produced a large number of cauldrons that have since the work of Paul Reinecke in 1896 been identified as having been produced by the Huns 239 Although typically described as bronze cauldrons the cauldrons are often made of copper which is generally of poor quality 240 Maenchen Helfen lists 19 known finds of Hunnish cauldrons from all over Central and Eastern Europe and Western Siberia 241 He argues from the state of the bronze castings that the Huns were not very good metalsmiths and that it is likely that the cauldrons were cast in the same locations where they were found 242 They come in various shapes and are sometimes found together with vessels of various other origins 243 Maenchen Helfen argues that the cauldrons were cooking vessels for boiling meat 244 but that the fact that many are found deposited near water and were generally not buried with individuals may indicate a sacral usage as well 245 The cauldrons appear to derive from those used by the Xiongnu 246 247 Clothing and jewelry nbsp A Hunnish oval openwork fibula set with a carnelian and decorated with a geometric pattern of gold wire 4th century Walters Art MuseumGood descriptions of Hun period clothing known from contemporary Central Asian burials to have probably been the khalat are lacking in Greco Roman sources 248 The East Roman historian Priscus reports seeing a Greek merchant who he took for a Hun due to his wearing Scythian clothing this appears to show that the Huns wore a distinct outfit that was part of ethnic identification 249 Ammianus reports that the Huns wore clothes made of linen or the furs of mice and leggings of goatskin which they did not wash 85 While the use of furs and linen may be accurate the description of the Huns in dirty animal skins and wearing the skins of mice is clearly derived from negative stereotypes and topoi about primitive barbarians 250 Priscus also mentions the use of various expensive and rare animal furs and mentions the handmaidens of Attila s queen Kreka weaving decorative linen 251 Using finds from modern Kazakhstan archaeologist Joachim Werner has described Hunnic clothing as probably consisting of knee length sleeved smocks the khalat which were sometimes made of silk as well as trousers and leather boots 252 Saint Jerome and Ammianus both describe the Huns as wearing a round cap that was probably made of felt 253 Because nomadic clothing had no need for brooches the absence of this otherwise common item in some Barbarian burials may indicate Hunnic cultural influence 254 A now headless copper plated Hun period figurine discovered at Bantapuszta near Veszprem Hungary shows a man in armor whose pants and collars have been decorated by ringlets 255 Archaeological finds indicate that the Huns wore gold plaques as ornaments on their clothing as well as imported glass beads 256 The golden plaques were probably used to decorate the hems of both male and female festive clothing this fashion seems to have been adopted both by the Huns and East Germanic elites 257 Both ancient sources and archaeological finds from graves confirm that the Hunnic women wore elaborately decorated golden or gold plated diadems 258 These diadems as well as elements of bonnets were probably symbols of rulership 259 In 1973 Maenchen Helfen listed a total of six known Hunnish diadems 260 Women are also found buried with small mirrors of an originally Chinese type which often appear to have been intentionally broken when placed into a grave 261 Hunnic women seem to have worn necklaces and bracelets of mostly imported beads of various materials as well 262 Men are often found buried with single or paired earrings and unusually for a nomadic people bronze or golden neck rings 259 According to Maenchen Helfen the Huns shoes were likely made of sheep s leather 84 The Bantapuszta figurine is wearing high bulky boots that are connected to the warrior s chainmail by straps of a type also described by Priscus 263 Both men and women have been found wearing shoe buckles made of gold and jewels in Eastern Europe but of iron or bronze in Central Asia the golden shoe buckles are also found in non Hunnic graves in Europe 259 Tents and dwellings Ammianus reports that the Huns had no buildings 264 but in passing mentions that the Huns possessed tents and also lived in wagons 163 No tents or wagons have been found in Hunnic archaeological contexts as they were evidently not buried with the deceased 86 Maenchen Helfen believes that the Huns likely had tents of felt and sheepskin Priscus once mentions Attila s tent and Jordanes reports that Attila lay in state in a silk tent 265 However by the middle of the fifth century Priscus mentions that the Huns owned permanent wooden houses which Maenchen Helfen believes were built by their Gothic subjects 266 Bows and arrows Ancient Roman sources stress the importance of the bow to the Huns 267 and it was the Huns main weapon 268 The Huns used a composite or reflex bow of what is often called the Hun type a style that had spread to all steppe nomads on the Eurasian steppe by the beginning of the Hun period 269 They measured between 120 to 150 centimeters Examples are vary rare in the archaeological record with finds in Europe clustering on the Pontic steppe and Middle Danube region 268 The rarity of surviving examples means that making precise statements about the advantages of this weapon is challenging 270 The bows were difficult to construct and probably objects of great value They were made out of a flexible wood strips of either antler or bone and animal sinew 271 The bone used to strengthen the bow made it more durable but probably less powerful 272 The graves of figures identified as princes among the Huns have been found buried with golden ceremonial bows in a wide area from the Rhine to the Dnieper 273 274 Bows were buried with the object placed across the chest of the deceased 275 The bows shot larger arrows than the earlier Scythian type bows with the appearance of iron three lobed arrowheads in the archaeological record taken as a sign of their spread 269 Ammianus while recognizing the importance of Hunnic bows does not appear well informed about them and claims among other things that the Huns only used bone pointed arrows 276 Riding gear Riding equipment and harnesses are frequent finds from Hun period burials 277 The Huns did not have spurs and so used whips to drive their horses the handles of such whips have been found in nomad graves 98 The Huns have customarily been considered the inventors of a wooden framed saddle 269 Maenchen Helfen for instance argued that the surviving ornamentation from nomad graves dating to the Hun period showed that the saddles must have had a wooden frame 278 However Oleksandr Symonenko argues more recent work has shown that the Huns still used an earlier style of saddle made of padding 269 The Huns are also commonly credited with having introduced the stirrup to Europe 279 These appear to have been used by other Xiongnu successor groups in Asia from the 5th century CE onward 280 However no stirrups have been found in Hunnic burials nor is there any textual evidence of their use 281 282 Maenchen Helfen also argues against the Huns having used stirrups on the grounds that there is no evidence for their use after the end of the Hun empire even though they could easily have been copied by subject peoples 98 Without stirrups the Huns would not have had the stability to fight in close combat on horseback and thus appear to have preferred fighting using bows and arrows 277 The lack of stirrups would have required special techniques for firing arrows from horseback 283 Armor Defensive equipment and chainmail are rare finds in Hunnic period graves 277 Ammianus makes no mention of any use of armor among the Huns 284 However it is believed that the Huns made use of lamellar armor a style of armor popular among steppe nomads during this time 269 Metal armor was probably a rarity 284 The Huns may have used a type of helmet known as the Spangenhelm but Hunnic nobles may have worn helmets of various types 285 Swords and other weapons Ammianus reports that the Huns used iron swords 286 and ceremonial swords daggers and decorated scabbards are frequent finds in Hun period burials 277 Additionally pearls are often found with swords these decorative elements may have had a religious meaning 287 Beginning with Joachim Werner archaeologists have argued that the Huns may have originated the fashion of decorating swords with cloisonne 237 however Philip von Rummel argues these swords show strong Mediterranean influence are rare in the Carpathian Basin from the Hun period and may have been produced by Byzantine workshops 288 Thompson is skeptical that the Huns could cast iron themselves 286 but Maenchen Helfen argues that t he idea that the Hun horsemen fought their way to the walls of Constantinople and to the Marne with bartered and captured swords is absurd 163 One characteristic sword used by the Huns and their subject peoples was the narrow bladed long seax 289 Since the work of J Werner in the 1950s many scholars have believed that the Huns introduced this type of sword to Europe 290 In the earliest versions these swords seem to have been shorter stabbing weapons 291 The Huns along with the Alans and the Eastern Germanic peoples also used a type of sword known as an East Germanic or Asian spatha a long double edged iron sword with an iron cross guard 227 These swords would have been used to cut down enemies who had already been driven to flight by the Huns volleys of arrows 277 Roman sources also mention lassos as weapons used at close range to immobilize opponents 292 Some Huns or their subject peoples may also have carried heavy lances as is attested for some Hunnic mercenaries in Roman sources 293 LegacyIn Christian hagiography nbsp Martyrdom of Saint Ursula by Hans Memling The turbaned and armored figures represent Huns After the fall of the Hunnic Empire various legends arose concerning the Huns Among these are a number of Christian hagiographic legends in which the Huns play a role In an anonymous medieval biography of Pope Leo I Attila s march into Italy in 452 is stopped because when he meets Leo outside Rome the apostles Peter and Paul appear to him holding swords over his head and threatening to kill him unless he follows the pope s command to turn back 294 In other versions Attila takes the pope hostage and is forced by the saints to release him 295 In the legend of Saint Ursula Ursula and her 11 000 holy virgins arrive at Cologne on their way back from a pilgrimage just as the Huns under an unnamed prince 296 are besieging the city Ursula and her virgins are killed by the Huns with arrows after they refuse the Huns sexual advances Afterwards the souls of the slaughtered virgins form a heavenly army that drives away the Huns and saves Cologne 297 Other cities with legends regarding the Huns and a saint include Orleans Troyes Dieuze Metz Modena and Reims 298 In legends surrounding Saint Servatius of Tongeren dating to at least the eighth century Servatius is said to have converted Attila and the Huns to Christianity before they later became apostates and returned to their paganism 299 In Germanic legend nbsp The Huns outside set fire to their own hall to kill the Burgundians Illustration from the Hundeshagen Codex of the Nibelungenlied The Huns also play an important role in Germanic heroic legends which frequently convey versions of events from the migration period and were originally transmitted orally 300 Memories of the conflicts between the Goths and Huns in Eastern Europe appear to be maintained in the Old English poem Widsith as well as in the Old Norse poem The Battle of the Goths and Huns which is transmitted in the thirteenth century Icelandic Hervarar Saga 301 302 Widsith also mentions Attila having been ruler of the Huns placing him at the head of a list of various legendary and historical rulers and peoples and marking the Huns as the most famous 303 The name Attila rendered in Old English as AEtla was a given name in use in Anglo Saxon England e g Bishop AEtla of Dorchester and its use in England at the time may have been connected to the heroic kings legend represented in works such as Widsith 304 Maenchen Helfen however doubts the use of the name by the Anglo Saxons had anything to do with the Huns arguing that it was not a rare name 305 Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People lists the Huns among other peoples living in Germany when Anglo Saxons invaded England This may indicate that Bede viewed the Anglo Saxons as descending partially from the Huns 306 307 The Huns and Attila also form central figures in the two most widespread Germanic legendary cycles that of the Nibelungs and of Dietrich von Bern the historical Theoderic the Great The Nibelung legend particularly as recorded in the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Volsunga saga as well as in the German Nibelungenlied connects the Huns and Attila and in the Norse tradition Attila s death to the destruction of the Burgundian kingdom on the Rhine in 437 308 In the legends about Dietrich von Bern Attila and the Huns provide Dietrich with a refuge and support after he has been driven from his kingdom at Verona 309 A version of the events of the Battle of Nadao may be preserved in a legend transmitted in two differing versions in the Middle High German Rabenschlacht and Old Norse Thidrekssaga in which the sons of Attila fall in battle 309 The legend of Walter of Aquitaine meanwhile shows the Huns to receive child hostages as tribute from their subject peoples 310 Generally the continental Germanic traditions paint a more positive picture of Attila and the Huns than the Scandinavian sources where the Huns appear in a distinctly negative light 311 In medieval German legend the Huns were identified with the Hungarians with their capital of Etzelburg Attila city being identified with Esztergom or Buda 312 The Old Norse Thidrekssaga however which is based on North German sources locates Hunaland in northern Germany with a capital at Soest in Westphalia 313 In other Old Norse sources the term Hun is sometimes applied indiscriminately to various people particularly from south of Scandinavia 313 314 From the thirteenth century onward the Middle High German word for Hun hiune became a synonym for giant and continued to be used in this meaning in the forms Hune and Heune into the modern era 315 In this way various prehistoric megalithic structures particularly in Northern Germany came to be identified as Hunengraber Hun graves or Hunenbetten Hun beds 316 317 Links to the Hungarians See also Hungarian prehistory and Origin of the Szekelys nbsp Feast of Attila Hungarian romantic painting by Mor Than 1870 Beginning in the High Middle Ages Hungarian sources have claimed descent from or a close relationship between the Hungarians Magyars and the Huns The claim appears to have first arisen in non Hungarian sources and only gradually been taken up by the Hungarians themselves because of its negative connotations 318 319 320 The Anonymous Gesta Hungarorum after 1200 is the first Hungarian source to mention that the line of Arpadian kings were descendants of Attila but he makes no claim that the Hungarian and Hun peoples are related 321 322 The first Hungarian author to claim that Hun and Hungarian peoples were related was Simon of Keza in his Gesta Hunnorum et Hungarorum 1282 1285 323 Simon claimed that the Huns and Hungarians were descended from two brothers named Hunor and Magor d These claims gave the Hungarians an ancient pedegree and served to legitimize their conquest of Pannonia 325 326 327 Modern scholars largely dismiss these claims 328 329 305 330 Regarding the claimed Hunnish origins found in these chronicles Jeno Szucs writes The Hunnish origin of the Magyars is of course a fiction just like the Trojan origin of the French or any of the other origo gentis theories fabricated at much the same time The Magyars in fact originated from the Ugrian branch of the Finno Ugrian peoples in the course of their wanderings in the steppes of Eastern Europe they assimilated a variety of especially Iranian and different Turkic cultural and ethnic elements but they had neither genetic nor historical links to the Huns 331 Generally the proof of the relationship between the Hungarian and the Finno Ugric languages in the nineteenth century is taken to have scientifically disproven the Hunnic origins of the Hungarians 332 Another claim also derived from Simon of Keza 333 is that the Hungarian speaking Szekely people of Transylvania are descended from Huns who fled to Transylvania after Attila s death and remained there until the Hungarian conquest of Pannonia While the origins of the Szekely are unclear 334 modern historians and archaeologists do not consider the Szekelys to be of Hunnic origin due to a lack of evidence 335 nbsp Attila right as a king of Hungary together with Gyula and Bela I Illustration for Il costume antico e moderno by Giulio Ferrario 1831 Laszlo Makkai notes as well that some archaeologists and historians believe Szekelys were a Hungarian tribe or an Onogur Bulgar tribe drawn into the Carpathian Basin at the end of the 7th century by the Avars who were identified with the Huns by contemporary Europeans 336 Unlike in the legend the Szekely were resettled in Transylvania from Western Hungary in the eleventh century 337 Their language similarly shows no evidence of a change from any non Hungarian language to Hungarian as one would expect if they were Huns 338 339 While the Hungarians and the Szekelys may not be descendants of the Huns they were historically closely associated with Turkic peoples 340 Pal Engel notes that it cannot be wholly excluded that Arpadian kings may have been descended from Attila however and believes that it is likely the Hungarians once lived under the rule of the Huns 328 Hyun Jin Kim supposes that the Hungarians might be linked to the Huns via the Bulgars and Avars both of whom he holds to have had Hunnish elements 341 While the notion that the Hungarians are descended from the Huns has been rejected by mainstream scholarship the idea has continued to exert a relevant influence on Hungarian nationalism and national identity 342 A majority of the Hungarian aristocracy continued to ascribe to the Hunnic view into the early twentieth century 343 The Fascist Arrow Cross Party similarly referred to Hungary as Hunnia in its propaganda 344 Hunnic origins also played a large role in the ideology of the modern radical right wing party Jobbik s ideology of Pan Turanism 345 Legends concerning the Hunnic origins of the Szekely minority in Romania meanwhile continue to play a large role in that group s ethnic identity 346 Members of the Hungarian right wing with the support of the government of prime minister Victor Orban and academic institutions such as the Institute of Hungarian Research Magyarsagkutato Intezet MKI continue to promote Hungarian descent from the Huns 347 Modern associations with savagery See also List of terms used for Germans Hun pejorative Modern culture generally associates the Huns with extreme cruelty and barbarism 7 During the First World War Allied propaganda often called the Germans Huns in order to paint the Germans as savage barbarians this usage continued to a limited extent during the Second World War as well 348 See alsoAmal dynasty Huna people List of Huns List of rulers of the Huns Nomadic empireEndnotes There is a misconception e g as expressed by World History Encyclopedia 60 that Tacitus c 56 c 120 CE had first mentioned the Huns in 91 CE However T D Barnes 1977 already pointed out that Tacitus had not at all mentioned the Huns and that Orosius c 375 385 c 420 CE did not ascribe knowledge about the Huns to Tacitus but simply identified the contemporary Alans Goths and Huns with the Scythians whom Tacitus and Justin had already mentioned 61 He argues for the existence of Hunnic shamans on the basis of the presence of the element kam in the Hunnic names Atakam and Eskam which he derives from the Turkic qam meaning shaman 209 He derives this belief from a Hunnic custom attested in Ammianus that the Huns did not wash their clothes among later steppe peoples this is done to avoid offending the water spirits 211 Szucs argues that the name Hunor as a Hungarian ancestor is genuinely reflective of the Magyar oral legends but that it actually derives from the name Onogur Simon therefore merely used the resemblance of Hunor to Hun to support his theory 324 Citations a b de la Vaissiere 2015 p 177 Sinor 1990 p 180 a b de la Vaissiere 2015 p 175 180 Saag amp Staniuk 2022 Sinor 1990 p 177 Heather 1995 p 16 Szucs 1999 p xliv Engel 2001 p 2 Lendvai 2003 p 7 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 386 a b Sinor 1990 p 177 Haug Robert 27 June 2019 The Eastern Frontier Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia Bloomsbury Publishing p 64 ISBN 978 1 78831 722 1 the Rouran Khaqanate a nomadic confederation that had ruled Mongolia from the mid fourth until the mid sixth century and whose rise to power may have initiated the Hunnic migrations of the fourth century Lomazoff Amanda Ralby Aaron August 2013 The Atlas of Military History Simon and Schuster p 246 ISBN 978 1 60710 985 3 Heather 2010 p 502 de la Vaissiere 2015 p 176 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 7 Thompson 1996 p 20 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 5 Heather 2010 p 209 Wright 2011 p 60 Pohl 1999 p 501 de la Vaissiere 2015 p 175 Wright 2011 p 60 Thompson 1996 p 1 Schottky 2004 Sinor 1990 p 178 Heather 2005 pp 148 149 Schottky 2004 Sinor 1990 p 200 Pohl 1999 pp 501 502 Ball 2021 p 174 de la Vaissiere 2015 pp 178 180 de la Vaissiere 2015 pp 181 183 Kim 2015 p 46 Kim 2013 p 31 Kim 2015 pp 6 8 Kim 2015 pp 39 44 53 Doerfer 1973 p 8 Werner 1967 p 528 Atwood 2012 p 31 Kim 2015 p 66 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 4 9 a b Maenchen Helfen 1959 p 237 Maenchen Helfen 1959 p 236 Maenchen Helfen 1959 pp 237 238 Werner 1967 p 555 Atwood 2012 p 30 Atwood 2012 p 40 Atwood 2015 pp 45 47 Thompson 1996 pp 56 57 Sinor 1990 p 202 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 363 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 362 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 363 Sinor 1997 p 336 Sinor 1990 p 202 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 363 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 364 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 364 367 Kim 2015 p 7 a b c Kim 2015 p 4 Crubezy 1990 pp 195 196 Kim 2013 p 187 Molnar et al 2014 p 7 Molnar et al 2014 p 6 Kim 2015 p 99 Kradin 2018 Damgaard et al 2018 pp 369 371 Brosseder 2018 p 184 Borbely et al 2023 p 18 Saag amp Staniuk 2022 p 739 Maroti et al 2022 Gnecchi Ruscone et al 2022 a b Kulikowski 2019 p 77 Mark Joshua J 2018 Huns World History Encyclopedia Retrieved 23 November 2022 Barnes 1977 p 225 Heather 2005 pp 153 154 Heather 2005 pp 151 152 Thompson 1996 pp 30 31 a b Sinor 1990 p 184 Thompson 1996 pp 32 33 Thompson 1996 p 33 Sinor 1990 p 185 a b Sinor 1990 p 181 Sinor 1990 p 178 Thompson 1996 p 136 Thompson 1996 pp 87 89 Halsall 2007 pp 251 252 Schutte 1921 pp 296 306 Heather 1996 p 124 a b c Kim 2013 p 123 Heather 1996 p 125 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 165 168 a b Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 168 Kim 2015 p 136 Sinor 2005 p 4228 Rona Tas 1999 p 309 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 169 179 Thompson 1996 pp 46 47 Kim 2015 p 2 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 170 171 a b c d Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 171 a b Thompson 1996 p 47 a b Anke 2010 p 521 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 172 174 Ammianus 31 2 3 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 220 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 220 221 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 174 a b Thompson 1996 p 48 Thompson 1996 pp 47 48 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 174 178 Ammianus 31 2 6 a b c d Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 203 Thompson 1996 p 57 a b c Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 206 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 207 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 205 206 a b Sinor 1990 p 203 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 213 214 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 214 220 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 182 183 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 184 185 Sinor 1990 p 205 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 184 199 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 199 200 Lenski 2015 p 239 Lenski 2015 pp 239 240 Thompson 1996 pp 189 194 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 185 a b Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 187 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 188 189 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 185 186 a b Atwood 2012 p 48 a b Heather 1995 p 11 a b Heather 2005 p 325 Thompson 1996 pp 67 68 a b Golden 1992 p 92 Golden 1992 p 90 92 Kim 2015 pp 81 89 Pohl 2015 pp 258 259 Ammianus 31 2 4 Thompson 1996 p 50 Thompson 1996 p 51 Golden 1992 p 88 Thompson 1996 p 64 Kim 2015 p 77 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 190 Kim 2015 pp 86 87 Wolfram 1997 p 143 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 192 193 Thompson 1996 pp 179 181 Thompson 1996 p 183 Thompson 1996 pp 181 183 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 194 195 Kim 2015 pp 83 84 Kim 2015 p 85 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 406 Kelly 2015 pp 196 197 a b Golden 1992 p 91 Kelly 2015 p 203 a b Kelly 2015 p 195 Paron 2021 p 71 a b Kulcsar amp Istvanovits 2019 p 167 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 43 Woloszyn 2020 p 118 Woloszyn 2020 pp 118 119 Woloszyn 2020 p 121 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 371 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 pp 408 409 Heather 2015 p 221 Heather 2015 p 222 Pohl 1999 p 502 Heather 2015 pp 224 225 Ammianus Marcellinus 31 2 8 9 p 385 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 202 203 Heather 2005 p 155 Heather 2005 pp 155 156 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 202 Kim 2013 pp 17 19 a b c Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 12 Kelly 2015 p 204 a b Kelly 2015 p 205 Golden 2002 p 153 Golden 2002 pp 137 138 Golden 2002 pp 131 132 Sinor 1990 p 204 Heather 2005 pp 329 330 Heather 2005 p 332 Golden 2002 pp 133 134 Heather 2005 pp 301 302 Heather 2005 p 303 Nicolle 2006 p 18 a b c Hakenbeck 2018 Mayall Pilbrow amp Bitadze 2017 p 3 Kim 2015 pp 164 165 Sinor 1990 pp 202 203 Molnar et al 2014 p 2 Crubezy 1990 p 195 Kim 2015 p 165 Sinor 1990 pp 202 203 Kim 2015 p 164 a b Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 377 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 382 Wolfram 1990 p 254 Wolfram 1997 p 142 Heather 2010 p 329 Kim 2013 pp 30 31 Ball 2021 p 170 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 423 426 Pohl 1999 pp 501 502 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 376 Maenchen Helfen 1973 Kim 2013 p 30 Pritsak 1982 p 470 Savelyev amp Jeong 2020 their identification with the speakers of Eastern Iranian Bailey 1985 p 25 Vajda 2013 pp 4 14 48 103 6 108 9 130 1 135 6 182 204 263 286 310 Doerfer 1973 p 50 Golden 1992 pp 88 89 Sinor 1997 p 336 Rona Tas 1999 p 208 a b Thompson 1996 p 187 Maenchen Helfen 1959 pp 233 234 Thompson 1996 p 185 Thompson 1996 pp 186 187 a b c Thompson 1996 p 186 Man 2005 p 61 Thompson 1946 p 73 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 259 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 262 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 278 279 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 279 280 a b c d Sinor 2005 p 4229 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 274 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 167 Thompson 1946 pp 73 74 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 167 169 a b c d Sinor 2005 p 4228 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 259 260 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 278 296 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 306 330 Man 2005 pp 61 62 Maenchen Helfen 1966 p 80 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 278 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 287 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 262 263 Thompson 1946 pp 73 79 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 260 261 Lenski 2015 p 241 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 275 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 274 275 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 275 277 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 277 278 Heather 2005 pp 330 331 a b Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 379 Kulcsar amp Istvanovits 2019 pp 178 179 Heather 2005 p 331 332 a b Anke 2010 p 519 Anke 2010 p 520 Man 2005 p 79 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 9 17 Thompson 1996 pp 6 7 Kim 2015 p 166 167 von Rummel 2007 p 38 354 a b Kim 2015 p 170 Ball 2021 p 196 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 306 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 321 322 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 307 318 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 320 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 323 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 326 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 327 330 Kim 2015 p 6 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 337 von Rummel 2007 p 119 von Rummel 2007 p 116 von Rummel 2007 pp 115 116 von Rummel 2007 pp 117 119 von Rummel 2007 pp 116 117 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 171 172 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 389 398 Takats 1963 p 241 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 354 356 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 388 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 297 a b c Anke 2010 p 516 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 299 306 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 352 354 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 357 Takats 1963 p 241 244 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 178 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 179 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 179 180 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 221 a b Kazanski 2018 p 408 a b c d e Symonenko 2017 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 383 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 pp 383 384 Rumschlag 2016 p 83 Kim 2013 p 203 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 384 Rumschlag 2016 p 82 83 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 221 222 a b c d e Kazanski 2013 p 513 Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 209 210 Crossley 2023 Rumschlag 2016 p 80 Kazanski 2013 p 514 Rumschlag 2016 p 85 Rumschlag 2016 p 86 a b Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 241 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 252 253 a b Thompson 1996 p 59 Anke 2010 pp 518 519 von Rummel 2007 pp 346 348 Rodzinska Nowak 2020 p 396 Kiss 2014 pp 132 133 Kiss 2014 p 135 Heather 2005 p 157 Maenchen Helfen 1973 pp 239 Eastman 2011 p 88 Man 2005 p 291 292 Man 2005 p 294 Montgomery 2010 pp 16 17 Man 2005 pp 292 293 Goossens et al 2008 pp 110 111 Haymes amp Samples 1996 pp 8 14 Uecker 1972 pp 75 79 Hedeager 2011 p 179 Hedeager 2011 p 187 Neidorf 2013 p 172 a b Maenchen Helfen 1973 p 386 Campbell 1986 p 53 123 124 Neidorf 2013 p 174 176 Lienert 2015 pp 35 36 a b Lienert 2015 p 99 Lienert 2015 p 72 Uecker 1972 p 63 Gillespie 1973 pp 79 80 a b Gillespie 1973 p 79 Haymes amp Samples 1996 p 46 Grimm Jacob Grimm Wilhelm 1854 1961 Deutsches Worterbuch Vol 10 Leipzig Hirzel p 1942 Grimm Jacob Grimm Wilhelm 1854 1961 Deutsches Worterbuch Vol 10 Leipzig Hirzel p 1943 Man 2005 p 298 Rona Tas 1999 p 424 Lendvai 2003 pp 7 25 26 Szucs 1999 pp xlv xlvii Rona Tas 1999 p 423 Szucs 1999 p xlvii Engel 2001 p 121 Szucs 1999 p lv Rona Tas 1999 pp 423 434 Szucs 1999 pp liii liv Lendvai 2003 p 60 a b Engel 2001 p 2 Lendvai 2003 p 7 Rona Tas 1999 pp 426 427 Szucs 1999 p xliv Lafferton 2007 p 717 Rona Tas 1999 p 436 Lendvai 2003 p 24 Borbely et al 2023 p 2 Makkai 2001 pp 415 416 Makkai 2001 pp 416 417 Makkai 2001 pp 414 415 Engel 2001 p 116 Lendvai 2003 pp 14 15 Kim 2015 p 140 Akcali amp Korkut 2012 pp 601 602 Sommer 2017 p 172 Kamusella 2009 p 474 Kowalczyk 2017 Lendvai 2003 pp 23 24 Kremmler 2022 Man 2005 pp 303 307 ReferencesAkcali Emel Korkut Umut 2012 Geographical Metanarratives in East Central Europe Neo Turanism in Hungary Eurasian Geography and Economics 53 3 596 614 doi 10 2747 1539 7216 53 5 596 S2CID 144370189 Ammianus Marcellinus 1939 AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS ROMAN ANTIQUITIES Book XXXI Vol III of the Loeb Classical Library edition Anke Bodo 2010 2000 Hunnen 6 Archaologisches Germanische Altertumskunde Online de Gruyter Atwood Christopher P 2012 Huns and Xiōngnu New Thoughts on an Old Problem In Boeck Brian J Martin Russell E Rowland Daniel eds Dubitando Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski Cambridge University Press pp 27 52 ISBN 978 0 8 9357 404 8 Atwood Christopher P 2015 The Kai the Khongai and the Names of the Xiōngnu International Journal of Eurasian Studies 2 35 63 Ball Warwick 2021 The Eurasian Steppe People Movement Ideas Edinburgh University Press doi 10 1515 9781474488075 ISBN 9781474488075 S2CID 248348684 Barnes Timothy David 1977 The Fragments of Tacitus Histories Classical Philology 72 3 224 231 doi 10 1086 366355 JSTOR 268314 S2CID 161875316 Borbely Noemi et al 2023 High Coverage Mitogenomes and Y Chromosomal Typing Reveal Ancient Lineages in the Modern Day Szekely Population in Romania Genes 14 1 133 doi 10 3390 genes14010133 PMC 9858685 PMID 36672874 Brosseder Ursula 2018 Xiongnu and Huns Archaeological Perspectives on a Centuries Old Debate about Identity and Migration In Di Cosmo Nicola ed Empires and Exchanges in Eurasian Late Antiquity Rome China Iran and the Steppe ca 250 750 Cambridge University Press pp 176 188 doi 10 1017 9781316146040 015 Campbell James 1986 Essays in Anglo Saxon History London Hambledon Press ISBN 978 0907628323 OCLC 458534293 Crossley Pamela 2023 The Influence of Central Asia on Horse Use Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History doi 10 1093 acrefore 9780190277727 013 494 ISBN 978 0 19 027772 7 Crubezy Eric 1990 Merovingian Skull Deformations from the Southwest of France In Austin David Alcock Leslie eds From the Baltic to the Black Sea Studies in Medieval Archaeology London Psychology Press pp 189 208 195 196 Damgaard P B et al 9 May 2018 137 ancient human genomes from across the Eurasian steppes Nature Nature Research 557 7705 369 373 Bibcode 2018Natur 557 369D doi 10 1038 s41586 018 0094 2 hdl 1887 3202709 PMID 29743675 S2CID 13670282 Retrieved 11 April 2020 Doerfer Gerhard 1973 Zur Sprache der Hunnen Central Asiatic Journal 17 1 1 50 Eastman David L 2011 Paul the Martyr The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West Atlanta Society of Biblical Literature Engel Pal 2001 Ayton Andrew ed The realm of St Stephen a history of medieval Hungary 895 1526 Translated by Palosfalvi Tamas London New York I B Tauris ISBN 978 1860640612 Gillespie George T 1973 Catalogue of Persons Named in German Heroic Literature 700 1600 Including Named Animals and Objects and Ethnic Names Oxford Oxford University ISBN 978 0198157182 Gnecchi Ruscone Guido Alberto Szecsenyi Nagy Anna Koncz Istvan Csiky Gergely Racz Zsofia Rohrlach A B Brandt Guido Rohland Nadin Csaky Veronika Cheronet Olivia Szeifert Bea 14 April 2022 Ancient genomes reveal origin and rapid trans Eurasian migration of 7th century Avar elites Cell 185 8 1402 1413 e21 doi 10 1016 j cell 2022 03 007 ISSN 0092 8674 PMC 9042794 PMID 35366416 S2CID 247859905 Golden Peter B 1992 An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples Ethnogenesis and State Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East Wiesbaden Harrassowitz ISBN 978 3 447 03274 2 Golden Peter B 2002 War and warfare in the pre Cinggisid western steppes of Eurasia In di Cosmo Nicolo ed Warfare in Inner Asian History 500 1800 Leiden Boston Cologne Brill pp 105 172 doi 10 1163 9789004391789 005 ISBN 9789004391789 Hakenbeck Susanne 2018 Infant Head Shaping in Eurasia in the First Millennium ad In Crawford Sally Hadley Dawn M Shepherd Gillian eds The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Childhood Oxford University Press pp 483 504 doi 10 1093 oxfordhb 9780199670697 013 26 Halsall Guy 2007 Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West 376 568 Cambridge University Press doi 10 1017 CBO9780511802393 ISBN 978 0521434911 Haymes Edward R Samples Susan T 1996 Heroic legends of the North an introduction to the Nibelung and Dietrich cycles New York Garland ISBN 978 0815300335 Heather Peter 1996 The Goths Oxford Wiley Blackwell Heather Peter 1995 The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe English Historical Review 90 435 4 41 doi 10 1093 ehr CX 435 4 Heather Peter 2010 Empires and Barbarians The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 973560 0 Heather Peter 2005 The fall of the Roman Empire a new history of Rome and the barbarians New York Oxford University Press pp 146 167 ISBN 978 0 19 515954 7 Heather Peter 2015 The Huns and Barbarian Europe In Maas Michael ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila Cambridge University Press pp 209 229 doi 10 1017 CCO9781139128964 017 ISBN 978 1 107 63388 9 Hedeager Lotte 2011 Knowledge production reconsidered Iron Age myth and materiality an archaeology of Scandinavia AD 400 1000 Abingdon Oxfordshire New York Routledge pp 177 190 ISBN 9780415606042 OCLC 666403125 Heinric van Veldeken 2008 Goossens Jan Schlusemann Rita Voorwinden Norbert eds Sente Servas Munster agenda Jordanes 2006 Mierow Charles Christopher Mierow ed The Gothic History of Jordanes Evolution Publishing ISBN 978 1 889758 77 0 Kamusella Tomasz 2009 The Politics of Language and Nationalism in Modern Central Europe New York Palgrave MacMillan Kazanski Michel 2013 Barbarian Military Equipment and its Evolution in the Late Roman and Great Migration Periods 3rd 5th C A D In Sarantis Alexander Christie Neil eds War and Warfare in Late Antiquity Brill pp 493 522 doi 10 1163 9789004252585 016 ISBN 9789004252585 Kazanski Michel 2018 Bowmen s Graves from the Hunnic Period in Northern Illyricum In Nagy et al eds To Make a Fairy s Whistle from a Briar Rose Studies Presented to Eszter Istvanovits on her Sixtieth Birthday Nyiregyhaza Josa Andras Museum pp 407 17 Kelly Christopher 2015 Neither Conquest nor Settlement Attila s Empire and its Impact In Maas Michael ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila Cambridge University Press pp 193 208 doi 10 1017 CCO9781139128964 016 ISBN 978 1 107 63388 9 Kim Hyun Jin 2015 The Huns Routledge ISBN 9781138841758 Kim Hyun Jin 2013 The Huns Rome and the Birth of Europe Cambridge University Press doi 10 1017 CBO9780511920493 ISBN 9781107009066 Kiss Attila P 2014 Huns Germans Byzantines The Origins of the Narrow Bladed Long Seaxes Acta Archaeologica Carpathica 49 131 164 Kowalczyk Michal 2017 Hungarian Turanism From the Birth of the Ideology to Modernity an Outline of the Problem Historia i Polityka 20 27 49 63 doi 10 12775 HiP 2017 011 Kradin Nikolay 2018 Ancient Steppe Nomad Societies Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History doi 10 1093 acrefore 9780190277727 013 3 ISBN 978 0 19 027772 7 Kremmler Katrin 2022 Eurasian Magyars The Making of a New Hegemonic National Prehistory in Illiberal Hungary In Koranyi James Hanscam Emily eds Digging Politics The Ancient Past and Contested Present in East Central Europe de Gruyter Oldenbourg pp 181 216 doi 10 1515 9783110697445 ISBN 9783110697445 Kulcsar Valeria Istvanovits Eszter 2019 New Results in the Research on the Hun Age in the Great Hungarian Plain Some Notes on the Social Stratification of Barbarian Society In Hao Chen ed Competing Narratives between Nomadic People and their Sedentary Neighbours Papers of the 7th International Conference on the Medieval History of the Eurasian Steppe Nov 9 12 2018 Shanghai University China University of Szeged pp 167 182 Kulikowski Michael 2019 The Tragedy of Empire From Constantine to the Destruction of Roman Italy Harvard University Press doi 10 4159 9780674242708 Lafferton Emese 2007 The Magyar moustache the faces of Hungarian state formation 1867 1918 Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 38 4 706 732 doi 10 1016 j shpsc 2007 09 006 PMID 18053929 Lendvai Paul 2003 The Hungarians A Thousand Years of Victory in Defeat Translated by Major Ann Princeton NJ Princeton University Press ISBN 9781400851522 Lenski Noel 2015 Captivity Among the Barbarians and Its Impact on the Fate of the Roman Empire In Maas Michael ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila Cambridge University Press pp 230 246 doi 10 1017 CCO9781139128964 018 ISBN 978 1 107 63388 9 Lienert Elisabeth 2015 Mittelhochdeutsche Heldenepik Berlin Erich Schmidt ISBN 978 3 503 15573 6 Maenchen Helfen J Otto 1966 8EGRI and Tengri The American Journal of Philology 87 1 80 83 doi 10 2307 292978 JSTOR 292978 Maenchen Helfen Otto J 1973 Knight Max ed The World of the Huns Studies in Their History and Culture University of California Press doi 10 1525 9780520310773 ISBN 978 0 520 01596 8 Maenchen Helfen Otto J 1959 The Ethnic Name Hun In Egerod Soren ed Studia Serica Bernhard Karlgren dedicata Copenhagen pp 223 238 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Makkai Laszlo 2001 Transylvania in the medieval Hungarian kingdom 896 1526 In Kopeczi Bela ed History of Transylvania Vol I New York Columbia University Press pp 333 589 Man John 2005 Attila The Barbarian who Challenged Rome New York St Martin s Press ISBN 9780553816587 Maroti Zoltan Neparaczki Endre Schutz Oszkar 25 May 2022 The genetic origin of Huns Avars and conquering Hungarians Current Biology 32 13 2858 2870 e7 doi 10 1016 j cub 2022 04 093 PMID 35617951 S2CID 246191357 Mayall Peter Pilbrow Varsha Bitadze Liana 2 February 2017 Migrating Huns and modified heads Eigenshape analysis comparing intentionally modified crania from Hungary and Georgia in the Migration Period of Europe PlosOne 12 2 e0171064 Bibcode 2017PLoSO 1271064M doi 10 1371 journal pone 0171064 PMC 5289542 PMID 28152046 Montgomery Scott B 2010 St Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne Relics Reliquaries and the Visual Culture of Group Sanctity in Medieval Europe Oxford et al Peter Lang Molnar Monika Janos Istvan Szucs Laszlo Szathmary Laszlo April 2014 Artificially deformed crania from the Hun Germanic Period 5th 6th century AD in northeastern Hungary historical and morphological analysis Journal of Neurosurgery 36 4 E1 doi 10 3171 2014 1 FOCUS13466 PMID 24684322 Nicolle David 2006 Attila and the Nomad Hordes Oxford Osprey Publishing Neidorf Leonard 2013 The Dating of Widsid and the Study of Germanic Antiquity Neophilologus 97 1 165 183 doi 10 1007 s11061 012 9308 2 ISSN 0028 2677 S2CID 163940868 Paron Aleksander 2021 The Pechenegs Nomads in the Political and Cultural Landscape of Medieval Europe Brill JSTOR 10 1163 j ctv1v7zbmn Pohl Walter 2015 Migrations Ethnic Groups and State Building In Maas Michael ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila PDF Cambridge University Press pp 246 263 doi 10 1017 CCO9781139128964 019 ISBN 978 1 107 63388 9 Pohl Walter 1999 Huns In Bowersock G W Brown Peter Grabar Oleg eds Late Antiquity A Guide to the Postclassical World The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press pp 501 502 ISBN 978 0 674 51173 6 Pritsak Omeljan 1982 The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan PDF Harvard Ukrainian Studies Cambridge Massachusetts Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute IV 4 428 476 ISSN 0363 5570 Archived from the original PDF on 13 December 2016 Retrieved 22 November 2015 Rodzinska Nowak Judyta 2020 Early Migration Period Nomadic Finds In Bursche Aleksander Hines John Zapolska Anna eds The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula Brill pp 370 410 doi 10 1163 9789004422421 011 ISBN 9789004422421 S2CID 216441859 Rona Tas Andras 1999 Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages An Introduction to Early Hungarian History Budapest Central European University Press von Rummel Philipp 2007 Habitus barbarus Kleidung und Reprasentation spatantiker Eliten im 4 und 5 Jahrhundert de Gruyter doi 10 1515 9783110918205 Rumschlag Samuel 2016 One Bow or Stirrup Is Not Equal to Another A Comparative Look at Hun and Mongol Military Technologies The Silk Road 16 78 90 Saag Lehti Staniuk Robert 2022 Historical human migrations From the steppe to the basin Current Biology 32 13 38 41 doi 10 1016 j cub 2022 05 058 PMID 35820383 S2CID 250443139 Savelyev Alexander et al 7 May 2020 Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West Evolutionary Human Sciences Cambridge University Press 2 e20 doi 10 1017 ehs 2020 18 PMC 7612788 PMID 35663512 Schottky Martin 2004 Huns Encyclopaedia Iranica Schutte Gudmund 1921 The Nibelungen Legend and Its Historical Basis PDF The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 20 3 291 327 ISSN 0363 6941 Sinor Denis 1997 Studies in Medieval Inner Asia Hampshire Ashgate ISBN 978 0860786320 Sinor Denis 1990 The Hun Period In Sinor Denis ed The Cambridge history of early Inner Asia 1 publ ed Cambridge u a Cambridge Univ Press pp 177 203 doi 10 1017 CHOL9780521243049 008 ISBN 9780521243049 Sinor Denis 2005 Hun Religion In Jones Lindsay ed Encyclopedia of Religion Vol 6 2nd ed Macmillan Reference pp 4228 4229 ISBN 9780028657332 OCLC 56057973 Sommer Ulrike 2017 Archaeology and nationalism In Moshenska Gabriel ed Key Concepts in Public Archaeology London UCL Press pp 166 186 doi 10 2307 j ctt1vxm8r7 16 ISBN 978 1 911576 41 9 JSTOR j ctt1vxm8r7 16 Symonenko Olseksandr 2017 Warfare and Arms of the Early Iron Age Steppe Nomads Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History doi 10 1093 acrefore 9780190277727 013 237 ISBN 978 0 19 027772 7 Szucs Jeno 1999 Theoretical Elements in Master Simon of Keza s Gesta Hungarorum 1282 1285 In Veszpremy Laszlo Schaer Frank eds Simon of Keza The Deeds of the Hungarians Budapest Central European University Press pp xxix cii Takats Z 1963 Supplement to the Bantapuszta Hunnic Warrior Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 16 2 241 244 JSTOR 23682720 Thompson E A 1996 Heather Peter ed The Huns Blackwell Publishers ISBN 978 0 631 15899 8 Thompson E A 1946 Christian Missionaries among the Huns Hermathena 67 73 79 JSTOR 23037831 Uecker Heiko 1972 Germanische Heldensage Stuttgart Metzler ISBN 978 3476101068 de la Vaissiere Etienne 2015 The Steppe World and the Rise of the Huns In Maas Michael ed The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila Cambridge University Press pp 175 192 doi 10 1017 CCO9781139128964 015 ISBN 978 1 107 63388 9 Vajda Edward J 2013 Yeniseian Peoples and Languages A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide Oxford New York Routledge Werner Robert 1967 Das fruheste Auftreten des Hunnennamens Yue ci und Hephthaliten Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas 15 4 487 558 Wolfram Herwig 1990 History of the Goths University of California Press ISBN 978 0 5200 6983 1 Wolfram Herwig 1997 The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples University of California Press p 142 ISBN 978 0 5200 8511 4 Woloszyn Marcin 2020 The Migration Period in Poland in the Light of Literary Sources In Bursche Aleksander Hines John Zapolska Anna eds The Migration Period between the Oder and the Vistula Brill pp 84 136 doi 10 1163 9789004422421 011 S2CID 216441859 Wright David Curtis 2011 The history of China 2nd ed Santa Barbara Greenwood ISBN 978 0 313 37748 8 External links nbsp Wikimedia Commons has media related to Huns Dorn eich Chris M 2008 Chinese sources on the History of the Niusi Wusi Asi oi Rishi ka Arsi Arshi Ruzhi and their Kueishuang Kushan Dynasty Shiji 110 Hanshu 94A The Xiongnu Synopsis of Chinese original Text and several Western Translations with Extant Annotations A blog on Central Asian history www wbr history wbr com wbr topics wbr ancient china wbr huns Eliot Charles Norton Edgcumbe 1911 Huns Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 13 11th ed pp 932 933 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Huns amp oldid 1193078102, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.