When Rome fell, Europe churned. Cultures from far and wide – the Huns, the Goths, the Vandals – violently etched their names into history before being crushed by fresh waves of invaders.
Among them were less infamous bloodlines with far more mysterious origins. Like, for instance, the formidable mounted warriors known as theThe horde of horseback fighters emerged from the east in either 567 or 568 CE, pushing out the various Germanic groups from the Carpathian basin in Europe's southeast.
A new genomic analysis of the remains of 66 individuals uncovered from a diverse spread of Avar graves now reveals they were in fact the descendants of a Central Asian culture far to the east, providing the first solid evidence of a migration that would have taken place in record time. The Avars would make their presence known, engaging in a series of offensives far across the land that would eventually culminate in aAround this time an Egyptian-born Byzantine historian by the name of Theophylact Simocatta argued these adept warriors might not be who they claim to be, and could – in fact – be of a mixed heritage made up of lineages much closer to home.