Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian nomadic groups arrived to the Carpathian Basin
from the Eurasian Steppes and significantly influenced its political and ethnical
landscape, however their origin remains largely unknown. In order to shed light on
the genetic affinity of above groups we have determined Y chromosomal haplogroups
and autosomal loci, suitable to predict biogeographic ancestry, from 49 individuals,
supposed to represent the power/military elit. Haplogroups from the Hun-age are consistent
with Xiongnu ancestry of European Huns. Most of the Avar-age individuals carry east
Eurasian Y haplogroups typical for modern north-eastern Siberian and Buryat populations
and their autosomal loci indicate mostly un-admixed Asian characteristics. In contrast
the conquering Hungarians seem to be a recently assembled population incorporating
un-admixed European, Asian as well as admixed components. Their heterogeneous paternal
and maternal lineages indicate similar supposed phylogeographic origin of males and
females, derived from Central-Inner Asian and European Pontic Steppe sources.
