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Summary
Prehistoric Mongolia's Xiongnu empire left no written records, but biology is now filling out their story and that of other Central Asian cultures. A sweeping survey of ancient DNA across 6000 years and a study of the skeletal remains of horses from just before the rise of the Xiongnu trace population movements across Central Asia and the role of horses in driving them. Including DNA from more than 200 human skeletons found in Mongolia, the results span the period from 5000 B.C.E. all the way to Genghis Khan's Mongol Empire, around 1000 C.E.
