過去不少西方與東方歷史學家都提出過橫掃羅馬的匈王阿提拉與他的部族匈人
可能源自於被漢朝打敗而西遷的匈奴。但是，這個觀點因為間隔年代的史料空白太大，也
幾乎無任何中西方的史料可以佐証，而只能是假說。
近年來拜基因科技的發展之賜，死人骨頭已經可以用來做基因定序，來確定其祖先來源。
在2022年歐洲終於出版了一篇對於匈人(Huns)、阿瓦爾人(Avars)及匈牙利(馬札爾)征服
者的移民遺骸進行的大型基因(DNA)研究報告。研究的結論是匈人(Huns)與阿瓦爾人
(Avars)的祖先確實可以追溯到蒙古。也就是過去西方與東方歷史學家主張的的匈人阿提
拉可能源自於東方匈奴的說法，是符合基因研究的結果的。
論文名稱:The genetic origin of Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians
全文可在此上連結下載
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(22)00732-1.pdf
總結 (SUMMARY):
研究結果顯示匈人(Huns)與阿瓦爾人(Avars)移民群的核心可能是起源於今日的蒙古
，而他們的起源可追溯到匈奴人，正如許多歷史學家過去的主張一樣。
Our results reveal that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars likely
originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to
Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians.
Summary
{
Huns, Avars, and conquering Hungarians were migration-period nomadic tribal
confederations that arrived in three successive waves in the Carpathian Basin
between the 5th and 9th centuries. Based on the historical data, each of
these groups are thought to have arrived from Asia, although their
exact origin and relation to other ancient and modern populations have been
debated. Recently, hundreds of ancient genomes were analyzed from Central Asia,
Mongolia, and China, from which we aimed to identify putative source
populations for the above-mentioned groups. In this study, we have sequenced
9 Hun, 143 Avar, and 113 Hungarian conquest period samples and identified
three core populations, representing immigrants from each period with no
recent European ancestry.
Our results reveal that this "immigrant core" of both Huns and Avars likely
originated in present day Mongolia, and their origin can be traced back to
Xiongnus (Asian Huns), as suggested by several historians. On the other hand,
the "immigrant core" of the conquering Hungarians derived from an earlier
admixture of Mansis, early Sarmatians, and descendants of late Xiongnus. We
have also shown that a common "proto-Ugric" gene pool appeared in the Bronze
Age from the admixture of Mezhovskaya and Nganasan people, supporting genetic
and linguistic data. In addition, we detected shared Hun-related ancestry in
numerous Avar and Hungarian conquest period genetic outliers, indicating a
genetic link between these successive nomadic groups. Aside from the
immigrant core groups, we identified that the majority of the individuals
from each period were local residents harboring "native European" ancestry.
}