Ancient DNA reveals secrets of empire that pushed China to build its Great Wall
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Ancient DNA, combined with the fruits of recent archaeological digs, is spilling the secrets of one of the ancient world's most powerful political forces.
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. CNN — A nomadic empire dominated the Asian steppes for three centuries from 200 BC, trading goods on the Silk Road, building elaborate tombs for its dead and conquering distant lands on horseback. Known as the Xiongnu, the empire saw conflict with great rival imperial China that resulted in the construction of the Great Wall, parts of which still stand today. However, with no written records save for those produced by Chinese chroniclers who regarded the Xiongnu as barbarians, the empire and its people have long remained in the shadows of history. Now, ancient DNA evidence, combined with the fruits of recent archaeological digs, is spilling the secrets of one of the era's most powerful political forces. Excavation of the Xiongnu Elite Tomb 64 contains a high-status aristocratic woman at the site of a cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor in Mongolia's Altai Mountains. J. Bayarsaikhan An international team of scientists have completed a genetic investigation of two cemeteries along the western frontier of the Xiongnu empire in what's now Mongolia: an aristocratic elite cemetery at Takhiltyn Khotgor and a local elite cemetery at Shombuuzyn Belchir. The scientists sequenced the genomes of 17 individuals buried in the two cemeteries and found an "extremely high" level of genetic diversity, making it likely that the empire was multiethnic, multicultural and multilingual, according to the new study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. The genetic diversity was found within individual communities, suggesting that the empire wasn't just a…