The ancient Bulgarians were very likely to have been carriers of J2b and in particular J2b2-L283, given their location and origin - West Asia (Caucasus) and subsequently spread through Anatolia to the Balkans. The earliest European source mentioning Proto-Bulgarians is the so-called. An "Anonymous Roman Chronograph" - a list listing tribes and peoples, written in Latin in 354 by an unknown chronicler The Bulgarians, according to him, inhabited the lands around the Caspian, Azov and Black Seas, reaching south to the Caucasus foothills. Movses Khorenatsi, a 5th-century Armenian historian, reports that during the reign of Armenian King Vagarshak, Bulgarians crossed the Caucasus and settled in northeastern Turkey. An early account of the presence of the Proto-Bulgarians in Thrace in the 5th century gives a later text to John Antioch. According to him, the Ostrogoths invaded the Empire, and in 479 Emperor Zeno first allied himself with the Proto-Bulgarians who were here to help against the Goths. Another European source referring to Proto-Bulgarians (Βούλγαροι, Bulgari) is the chronicle of Enodius of Padua (died 521). He, like Cassiodorus, spoke of the victory of the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great in Srem against the Proto-Bulgarians, who fought in alliance with the Byzantine Empire around 485. For the next hundred years, the Byzantine authors (Procopius Caesarea, Agathi, Menander) did not use the name Bulgarians. Instead, in the place of the future Greater Bulgaria, there appear coutrigues and puzzles, probably two branches of the Proto-Bulgarians. Mentions of the Proto-Bulgarians reappeared at the end of the 6th century, when Greater Bulgaria was formed. In the Byzantine texts, the names Proto-Bulgarians, Couturiers and Utigurs are used interchangeably with Huns. According to them, the Bulgarians are identical or at least part of the Huns. The treasure from Vrap was discovered in 1901 by a peasant working in the field near the village of Vrap near Drac, Albania. Most scholars admit that this type of decoration was made in the 7th century. The biggest controversy about this treasure is which people have created these exquisite trimmings. The researchers go through various hypotheses, proclaiming the treasure for Avar, Bulgar, Byzantium, and even a forgery. The German archaeologist Joachim Werner argued that the find of Vrap is part of the treasury of the Avar Khaganate, possessed by Bulgaria's Kuber who ruled over the region at that time. The mere objects, according to him, are of nomadic origin and were produced by masters working for the ruler. *Kuber was Bulgar leader who ruled over Srem as a vassal to the Avar Khaganate. All of what we know comes from the "Miracles of St Demetrius" (The book is a hagiographic work, written in Thessaloniki in the 680s or 690s.). He ruled a mixed Christian population of Bulgars, Romans and Slavs that had been transferred to the Srem region in Pannonia by the Avars 60 years earlier. Kuber's Bulgars revolted and tried to make a coup and take the central power through an uprising. After the failed rebellion against the Avaric power, Kuber and his people headed south to the land of Byzantium, carrying six consecutive defeats to the pursuing avars. Kuber then made a peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire and settled in the Keramissian field (Prilep region), located in today's Republic of Macedonia. The Byzantines called these people "Sermisianoi" (after their former settlement - Sirmium), as well as the "Keramisians" (after their new place: the Keramissian plain). In Macedonia, they had contacts and possibly mixed with the "Dragovites" - a Slavic tribe in the region. In 680, he attempted to capture Thessaloniki and capture the Byzantine lands around him. This is evidenced by the seal of Mavrus - a lead seal dedicated to the "archon and patrician of Keramissians and Bulgarians". After an unsuccessful attempt to establish a state with a center in Thessaloniki, around 687, some of them moved to the lands along the Struma valley, to the east of Struma, as well as in the Rhodope mountains. Kuber was the son of Kubrat. Certainly, being a prominent prince would explain why the Avars gave hime rule, and his appearance in 670 chronologically fits the downfall of Old Great Bulgaria. He also suggests that Kuber's people represented a "second Balkan Bulgarian state’" in Macedonia, parallel to that of his brother's Asparukh realm in the north-eastern Balkans (modern northern Bulgaria). Whether he had established a state of sorts or not, nothing is mentioned of Kuber after the 680s, but Asparukh's son, Tervel, in the beginning of the 8th century, is said to have cooperated with "his uncles" from Thessaloniki, ("The lower Ohrid lands" ("Dolnaja zemja Ohridska") His people probably mixed with the Slavs living in the area, well before Presian expanded the First Bulgarian Empire into Macedonia in the early 800s. (It is suggested that Kuber’s Bulgars were allied with the First Bulgarian Empire, and were then incorporated in it.)
The prominent archaeologist from Republic of Macedonia Ivan Mikulchik revealed the presence not only of the Kuber group, but an entire Bulgar archaeological culture throughout Macedonia and eastern Albania. He describes the traces of Bulgars in this region, which consist of typical fortresses, burials, various products of metallurgy and pottery with supposed Bulgar origin or ownership, lead seals, minted from Kuber, amulets, etc. However, part of this could actually represent traces of Avar presence too. Known to have raided as far south as Macedonia, material culture of the Avars was very similar to that of the Bulgars. With the Ottoman invasions of the Balkans began large-scale emigration waves from Bulgaria towards the Western Balkans, Wallachia, Moldova, Banat, Hungary, and after the 17th century in Russia.