Elite women, perhaps princesses, played a crucial role in holding the Xiongnu, one of the first nomadic empires of the eastern Eurasian Steppe, together, a new study suggests.
The Xiongnu, who may have been among the ancient ancestors of the Mongols, formed a confederation of nomadic peoples who controlled much of Central Asia, from present-day Kazakhstan to Mongolia, from about the second century B.C. until the first century A.D.
But little is known about them, except for some Chinese records and recent genetic studies based on ancient DNA from their buried remains, said Bryan Miller, an archaeologist at the University of Michigan.
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