With the growing body of human genomic data in Eurasia over the recent years the question of migrations of Huns and Avars has received new attention. In both cases genetic data is taken as evidence for long-distance migrations between eastern Eurasia and the Carpathian Basin where the Huns and later the Avars established their polities. In this current project I take a deep-dive into the archaeological and genetic data and dis-entangle its labeling and interpretation in order to scrutinize current dominating narratives of migration. Instead, we can use the data to broaden our understanding of past polity formation, highlight the mobility of small groups or individuals and distance ourselves from strong beliefs in debates of origins. By taking a comparative approach which highlight differences between the people in the Hun and Avar polities, I work towards a new synthesis of the archaeological, historical and genetic datasets.

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