Bulgarian DNA questions

Ivan Alexandrov

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Here is the official DNA analysis on Bulgarians based upon 855 individuals throughout the country including the Islam areas.
Y-DNA - Bulgaria
I1 3% (Nordic/ Scandinavian)
I2a 20% (South Slavic)
I2b 1% (South Slavic)
R1a 18% (Slavic)
R1b 18% (Celtic, Western European)
G2a 1% (Common from Western Europe to India/East Africa)
J2 20% (Middle Eastern, believed to have been Thracian)
E1b1b 16% (Common Mediterranean/North African gene, believed to have been Thracian)
T 1% (Middle/Near Eastern)
Q 1% (Central Siberia, Central Asia)

I was able to find the data above for Bulgarians. I looked at each halo group individually and grouped it according to their roots in () marks. As a Bulgarian, I've always been very interested in their genetics because they are so mixed, having a broad range of features...blue, green, brown eyes and blonde, brown, and black hair. They have a unique Slavic feature that is blended in with Mediterranean/Celtic/and Thracian elements.... very well mixed with different Indo-European groups but does anyone have any information on other tests? The combined Slavic of I2a + I2b + R1a is only 39%...I feel like it should be higher. Has anymore tests concluded different research, I am interesting in knowing anything about their genetics and features, Also does anyone know of of the percentage of blonde hair in Bulgaria, I read that it was 8% somewhere but I feel like its higher. :unsure:


Any clean comments are welcomed.
 
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Here are Eupedia's maps for light hair, light eyes, etc in the link:
http://www.eupedia.com/europe/genetic_maps_of_europe.shtml

That's interestng Ivan. May I ask what you think the most commonplace look for a Bulgarian is? I imagine the most common is brunette hair with brown eyes and looking intermediate between Southern and Northern Europe. The phenotypical percentages I imagine are like 40% Mediterranean, 20-30% Baltid or Slavic looking etc...But I'm certainly in no place to say anything for certain. Sorry, I have trouble visioning a Mediterranean/Celtic/Thracian/Slavic mixed look.

On many autosomal charts, Bulgarians are quite closely related to Serbs and Romanians (especially Romanians interestingly, a possible legacy of the Thracians(?)). It seems they are phenotypically related to, not surprising as they are Balkan people. Also, may I ask about details of how the ancient Bulgars came to dominate Thrace and surrounding territories after their migration from around Khazaria? I'm foggy on the history of this time period.
 
Well in my experience traveling throughout Bulgaria over the years, yes, do look like Slavs. As with all Balkan people we have those that do not look like Slavs and are typically, Mediterranean or darker looking like the Greeks and Italians. Individual Bulgarian appearances vary from blonde with blue eyes to "oriental" with black hair and brown eyes and everything else in between. I personally think we are very unique and beautiful in features (not trying to be full of myself). I have green eyes and medium brown hair for example and have often been mistaken for a Russian in the US. But I would say the "average" Bulgarian has pale Slavic tone skin, medium brown hair and brown eyes.

As for history, Thracian people were the original inhabitants of Bulgaria for a long time, afterwards in the 2-6BC the Celtics came and conquered the area, lived with the Thracians. It is unclear how Thracians look, they were probably of Med. decent but some sources say they had red hair. The original name of Sofia is Serdika, which is Celtic. All throughout Bulgaria artifacts of Celtic settlements and ruins have been found. The village of Tylovo in central Bulgaria is of Celtic origin derivative. So I am not surprised that we have 18% R1b. Slavs came in the 6th Centuries to the Balkans while the Bulgars, of unknown decent came afterward from the northwest and merged together with the Seven Slavic tribes to form a country and defeat the Byzantine empire, Bulgaria! In 681 the country of Bulgaria was actually formed by the "Seven Slavic tribes" such as Smolyani, etc. 6 of them are South Slavic tribes and the other one is east Slavic from Ukraine that later settled in northwest Bulgaria. Bulgar language became extinct because I'm guessing because they were considerably low number compared to the Slavs and became absorbed into their culture.

Yes we are very similar to Serbs, Greeks, and especially Romanians, with Macedonians we are practically identical.
 
Thanks for the great reply! It gives a better picture of the history of the Balkans and its demographic changes. The Balkans is possibly the most dynamic place for demographic changes in Europe (and possibly the world) with so many different ethnicities and empires overrunning it. It's not surprising that you could find a great diversity there nowadays. But it could be helpful to get at least a general picture of the populace. It seems that the prevailing genetic legacy in the Balkans are the indigenous populations (early neolithic farmers and some hunter-gatherers) who were absorbed into the first major groups of people that became well known, aside from the Greeks, (the Indo-European Thracians, Dacians, Illyrians, and whatever else there were). Subsequently they were then assimilated into every other invader populations that would come to rule the Balkans.
 

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