The idea that Hungarians are connected to the Huns has been around for a long time. Although it has never been definitively proven, attempts to find proof resurface time and time again. However, some question whether it is about true scientific interest or rather serves a political agenda.
According to HVG, mentions of a possible Hun-Hungarian connection first surfaced in the writings of Anonymus. Anonymus connected the Árpád dynasty’s ancestry all the way back to Attila. He also calls the Szeklers Attila’s tribe. Simon Kézai was the one to further go into detail about the Hun origins at the end of the 13th century, and by the 15th century, being connected to Attila became an essential part of noblemen’s ideology. Chronicles of the time further strengthened the idea. For instance, János Thuróczy called King Matthias the second Attila, presumably not irrespective of what the king himself wanted.
Later, literary works further cemented the idea. For instance, in Kölcsey’s national anthem, the lines “By Thy help our fathers gained / Kárpát’s proud and sacred height; / Here by Thee a home obtained / Heirs of Bendegúz, the knight.” also refer to a Hun-Hungarian connection, as Bendegúz was the name of Attila’s father.
However, from the 19th century on, both linguists and historians were of the idea that the ideology of Hungarian ancestry that dominated for centuries was based on false conceptions. Proving the Hungarian language’s Finno-Ugric origins contributed to the conviction that a Hun-Hungarian connection had no actual historical foundation. For many, this development was hard to swallow, and they still work on proving that the Huns were, in fact, the ancestors of Hungarians.
Now, the institute researching Hungarian ancestry has set out to prove the connection once and for all. The archaeogenetics research centre, led by Endre Neparáczki, takes the task very seriously. Neparáczki said in an interview that archaeogenetics research is the way to go, as genomes of the findings from Hun times will clearly signal whether Huns had anything to do with the Hungarian conquerers.
However, the problem lies exactly there. Hun findings are not actually findings from Hun times.
There will be matches, for sure, but just because some of the nomadic tribes that came from Asia to Europe belonged to the Hun empire and happened to take part in the Hungarian ethnogenesis, too, it does not equal a direct Hun-Hungarian lineage. This suggests that the research most likely serve a political agenda.
Source: hvg.hu
2 Comments
Looks like someone failed at reading through the report of Endre Neparáczki. And desperatelly trying to discredit this first result of a tremendous research .However thats impossible
I quote:
“We found that some 40% of the conquerors had East Asian origin, where the 91
geographic origin of the best matching samples nicely corresponded to the region of the ancient
Xiongnu empire. Other 40% of the samples had best matches with modern people from
Scandinavia, Germany, or other regions in Western Europe. A smaller third group of the samples
(6.7%) matched modern samples from the Caucasus region and the Near East. For a small
proportion of samples, the exact origin could not be determined, but these samples were also of
East or West European origin.
Our data implies that Hungarian conquerors assembled from three major sources before
the conquest, corresponding to 3 major distinct populations. It follows that our initial population
genetic analysis which considered the conquerors as a single population was not justified. Based
on genetic and historical data half of the conqueror population had probably Xiongnu origin,
corroborating the statement of medieval Hungarian chronicles, which all declare Hunnic origin
of the Hungarians. The conquerors with Scandinavian-German genetic affinity had most
probably Ostrogothic origin, as this group was reported to have been integrated into the
European Hun Empire hundreds of years before the conquest. Interestingly this European
component also support the Hun affinity of the Hungarian conquerors. Our data do not support
the Finno-Ugric origin of the conquerors, therefore historical linguistic arguments will have to be
reconsidered.” End of quote.
So there IS a direct decent between the Huns and the Honfoglaló Magyars based on credible genetical data.
Just 23andme yourself. It will tell you how much asian ancestery you have. I think its in the single digits for the population. I don’t think being linked to Huns, Turks, or Avars is a good thing.