A generation of heavenly pride, Genghis Khan, only knows how to bend the bow to shoot large eagles.
The Mongol cavalry that swept through Eurasia in the 13th century shook the world, and genghis Khan's family was known as the conqueror of the world. Where did these Mongols galloping on the steppes come from?
Many people have given various explanations from the perspective of historical documents, from the Turks, Murwei to the Tunguska tribes, people's examination of the origin of the Mongol race has never stopped. Today, new discoveries in physical anthropology may provide a new perspective on the ancestors of the Mongols.
The analysis of human composition and ancient DNA from the bone data of Mongolian ancestors can reveal the genetic context of the formation process of Mongolian history from the perspective of physical anthropology and molecular archaeology, and provide evidence from natural sciences for the discussion of Mongolian origins.
Today's Mongols belong to the North Asian type of the Mongol race in terms of physical anthropology, which is widely distributed among the Mongols in China, the Buryats in Russia, and the native Mongolian populations.
Humble discovery
In present-day Xinghe County, southern Inner Mongolia, archaeologists have discovered tombs of the Xianbei people that lasted from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Northern Wei Dynasty (judging from the shape of the burials). Through the study of physical characteristics of the excavated human bones of more than 20 Xianbei tombs, the Xianbei people at that time had a broad skull type, which is what we call a wide face plate, the distance between the eyebrows and the top of the head is short, the cheekbones are higher, and there is a straight facial form with a low nose bridge, a flat chin, and a shallow eye socket.
The basic morphological characteristics of this skull are closest to the North Asian type of today's race. Therefore, to a certain extent, it can be said that the Xianbei people at that time were the direct distant ancestors of today's Mongols.
Restoration of the ancient Xianbei people
Mongols of the Yuan Dynasty
Similarly, in the tomb of Murong Xianbei in the Wei and Jin dynasties excavated in the Shuangta District of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, and the Twelve Tai Townships of Chaoyang County, the skull of the human bone has a short and wide skull shape, the cheekbones are high and wide, the facial flatness is large, the jaw is straight, the orbit is relatively low, and the basic germline composition should be North Asian Mongols.
The distribution of xianbei in the Wei and Jin dynasties
The skulls of the A group of Zalainuoer are derived from the ancient tomb group of the New Balhu Right Banner of the Hulunbuir League in Inner Mongolia, dating from the Eastern Han Dynasty, and belong to the remains of Tuoba Xianbei. According to preliminary studies, the basic germline characteristics of the inhabitants of this group can also be attributed to the Siberian (North Asian Mongoloid) type.
Gaxian Cave in the depths of the Daxing'an Mountains (suspected birthplace of Tuoba Xianbei)
According to the analysis of ancient tomb bones excavated in various regions, the various groups of the Xianbei tribe have considerable commonalities in ethnic characteristics, and the racial characteristics of the Mongolian race in North Asia should reflect the main ethnographic characteristics of the Xianbei inhabitants, and further confirm that "the Xianbei are a community with common ethnographic origins, and the Tuoba Xianbei and the Eastern Xianbei are homologous in the ethnology." The characteristics of the North Subtype of the Mongol race embodied in the Xianbei tombs directly reflect the close ethnic relationship between the ancient Xianbei people and the contemporary Mongols.
A distant relative of the Khitans
In 2002, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology transported some of the human bone materials excavated from the Faku Ye Maotai Liao Tomb and the Fuxin Guanshan Liao Tomb to the Frontier Archaeological Research Center of Jilin University. Both materials belong to the remains of members of the Xiao clan in the middle and late Liao Dynasty, and the two batches of materials are jointly divided into the Xiao clan group.
Khitan woman restoration
In the 17 comparative items of physical anthropology, the Xiao family group entered the boundary value range of the Mongolian race in North Asia in eight items, including skull length, frontal angle, cranial index, cranial width and height index, vertical craniofacial index, dough angle, nose index, and orbital index. In addition, the nasal root index and the upper two are basically close to the upper limit of the Mongolian race in North Asia.
Based on the research of other Liao Dynasty cemeteries, whether it is the Khitan nobles represented by the Xiao Hou Clan Group or the Khitan commoners represented by the Chaoyang Shanzuizi Group in Liaoning, their physical characteristics are closest to the physique types of the modern North Asian Mongol race, which shows that the racial characteristics of the North Asian Mongol race should reflect the main etymological characteristics of the Khitan residents of the Liao Dynasty.
Legendary Khitan descendants - Daur people
The khitans in history did not have a direct inheritance relationship with today's Mongols, and the physical and human characteristics of the Khitans were basically the same as those of the Mongols. The close relationship between the Xiao hou clan group in Liaoning and the Xianbei inhabitants of the Han Dynasty in Sandaowan seems to imply that the ancient Xianbei and Khitan peoples may have been homologous in the etymology. This is also in line with the Khitan people's record of Yuwen Xianbei.
Today's Mongolian people have a very unique physical characteristics, in addition to the basic skeletal morphological analysis, today's bioarchaeologists can also through the mitochondrial DNA research to compare the physical anthropology of the residents of the Jinggouzi cemetery in Inner Mongolia with various types of Mongolian races in modern Asia, from the analysis of the ethnic composition and the analysis of genetic composition, we know that there are obvious commonalities between the residents of the Eastern Zhou Period of Jinggouzi (Donghu) and the Xianbei people of the Northern Han and Jin Dynasties. They all bear the greatest resemblance to today's North Asian type of Mongol race ( predominantly Mongols ) .
It can be seen from this that today's Mongols and the Eastern Hu and Xianbei in ancient Chinese history show the same genetic characteristics, and belong to the same Xianbei lineage as the Khitans.
The Xianbei tribe, which remained in the Daxing'anling region of the north, directly formed today's Mongolia, while the Xianbei tribe, which lived in the upper reaches of the Liao River, was called Khitan by name. The sequence of ethnic development from Donghu-Xianbei-Muwei-Mongolia is basically credible.