The Huns are known to history mainly through the exploits of their greatest leader Attila, who ruled over a vast and powerful empire in the fifth century AD that attacked the Romans and helped hasten the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The Huns suddenly appeared in Europe in the 370s, establishing one of the most influential although short-lived empires in Europe. Scholars have long debated whether the Huns were descended from the Xiongnu, a confederation of nomadic people who dominated the steppes of East Asia on the Mongolian Plateau from the third century BC through the first century AD. The Xiongnu Empire dissolved around 100 CE, leaving a 300-year gap before the Huns appeared in Europe. Can DNA lineages
