historians use Turks to refer to all peoples speaking Turkic languages, differentiated from non-Turkic speakers. According to some researchers (Duan, Xue, Tang, Lung, Onogawa, etc.) the later Ashina tribe descended from the Tiele confederation. The Tiele however were probably one of many early Turkic groups, ancestral to later Turkic populations. However, according to Lee & Kuang (2017), Chinese histories do not describe the Ashina and the Göktürks as descending from the Dingling or the Tiele confederation. Xiongnu (3rd c. BCE – 1st c. CE) It has even been suggested that the Xiongnu themselves, who were mentioned in Han Dynasty records, were Proto-Turkic speakers. The Turks may ultimately have been of Xiongnu descent. Although little is known for certain about the Xiongnu language(s), it seems likely that at least a considerable part of Xiongnu tribes spoke a Turkic language. Some scholars believe they were probably a confederation of various ethnic and linguistic groups. A 2020 review of linguistic and genetic research suggested that the majority of the Xiongnu tribal members spoke a Turkic language. The analysis of Xiongnu genetics revealed a highly diverse population, with approximately 58% of Xiongnu ancestry being linked to East Eurasian sources such as Bronze Age Mongolian pastoralists from Khövsgöl, while roughly 40% could he traced to West Eurasian populations, such as the Sintashta culture of the Western Eurasian steppe, and the Gonur Depe (BMAC) population of Central Asia. Using the only extant possibly Xiongnu writings, the rock art of the Yinshan and Helan Mountains, some scholars argue that the older Xiongnu writings are precursors to the earliest known Turkic alphabet, the Orkhon script. Petroglyphs of this region dates from the 9th millennium BCE to the 19th century, and consists mainly of engraved signs (petroglyphs) and few painted images. Excavations done during 1924–1925 in Noin-Ula kurgans located in the Selenga River in the northern Mongolian hills north of Ulaanbaatar produced objects with over 20 carved characters, which were either identical or very similar to the runic letters of the Turkic Orkhon script discovered in the Orkhon Valley. Huns (4th–6th c. CE) In the 18th century, the French scholar Joseph de Guignes became the first to propose a link between the Huns and the Xiongnu people, who were northern neighbours of China in the 3rd century BC. The Hun hordes ruled by Attila, who invaded and conquered much of Europe in the 5th century, might have been, at