arshba.ru

13th century BC

Xiongnu — an ancient nomadic people that inhabited the steppes north of China. To protect against their raids, Qin Shi Huang built the Great Wall of China. The Xiongnu waged active wars with the Chinese Han Empire, during which they consolidated into a single state that subjugated neighboring nomadic tribes. Later, as a result of wars with China and the Xianbei tribes, as well as internal strife, the Xiongnu state collapsed. The Xiongnu are known from ancient Chinese sources and from archaeological excavations of their monuments, the first of which were conducted in the late 19th — early 20th century by Yu. D. Talko-Grintsevich (the Sudzha burial grounds near Kyakhta), and then the most significant finds were made in the early 20th century by P. K. Kozlov (the Noin-Ula burial mounds in the Selenga Valley).

In 93 AD, a coalition of China, the Xianbei, the Dingling, and the Cheshi (inhabitants of the Turfan oasis) defeated the Xiongnu at the Battle of Ikh-Bayan, and in 155 AD, the Xianbei leader Tanshihuai defeated the Xiongnu, leading to the split of the Xiongnu ethnos into four branches, of which one merged with the victorious Xianbei; another migrated to China; the third remained in the mountain forests and gorges of the Tarbagatai and the basin of the Black Irtysh; the fourth retreated westward with battles and by 158 AD reached the Volga and the lower Don. The ancient geographer Dionysius Periegetes reported their arrival. Part of the Xiongnu reached Europe and, having mixed along the way with Turkic, Eastern Sarmatian, and Ugric tribes, gave rise to a new people, known in Europe as the Huns. During the retreat to the west, the fourth part of the so-called "lesser" Xiongnu remained in the territories of Semirechye and Western Siberia, forming the state of Yueban (160–490). E. Parker and the Turkologist A. Dybo believe that "Yueban" is the modern pronunciation, while "Avar" is the ancient pronunciation. Numerous burial grounds revealing traces of the Hunnic movement to the west have been found by archaeologists "in the Talas Valley, the Central Tien Shan, Fergana, the Tashkent oasis, the Chatkal Valley, and Chon-Alai. Separate elements of the material culture of the Huns (jewelry with inlay of the Noin-Ula type) have been discovered in the "swamp settlements" of the Aral Sea region, and the development of these elements has been traced in western Kazakhstan. Of great importance is the discovery of Hunnic burial grounds on the lower Volga, with some of them dating to the 1st–2nd centuries AD and indicating the early penetration of the Huns to the eastern borders of Europe. Separate, though still scattered, traces of the Huns have been noted in the Caucasus and Crimea."

VARIANT NAMES: Mongolian Khünnü, Khün, Güren, Chinese 匈奴 (Xiongnu), Old Chinese **qhoŋ-naa, Greek Χιονγκ-νου, Latin Xiongnu, Russian Khunnu, Syunnu, Gunny.


Sources:

Ethnogenesis of the Abkhazians. D.A. Arshba, 2015