Noin-Ula burial site
Many immigrants lived in the Xiongnu pasturelands, but at first they did not mix with the Xiongnu. To be a Xiongnu, one had to be a member of a clan, born of Xiongnu parents. The newcomers were well off, but were outsiders, and could marry only among themselves, not the Xiongnu. Only later did they intermix, increase in numbers, even created a state that existed from 318 to 350 AD.
Origin of the Huns
At the beginning of the twentiethcentury, German Sinologist Friedrich Hirth discovered passages in the Chinese annals that he believed proved the connection between the Huns and the Xiongnu. Hirth's work convinced many, and by the 1940s there was a general consensus among historians and archaeologists that the Xiongnu and the Huns were related. However, Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen showed conclusively that Hirth had misinterpreted the Chinese annals in 1945. Maenchen-Helfen also argued against the identification based on then-current archaeology and on ethnographic grounds. While he did not address the question in his most important work, "The World of the Huns" (1973), Maenchen-Helfen would go on to cast doubt on new theories that equated the Huns and the Xiongnu on the basis of their names in several articles. Maenchen-Helfen's skepticism was also taken up by prominent Eurasianist Denis Sinor.