Bronze Age Balkan DNA

Gash,

As requested I uploaded also I4331 Ancient Croatia with Y-DNA haplogroup J2b2a.

GEDmatch Genesis kit number - RL6378186

This male sample plots similar as the other Bronze Age Dalmatian (woman I3313):

Eurogenes K15 results:

Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 North_Sea 23.44
2 West_Med 22.65
3 Atlantic 22.42
4 East_Med 15.28
5 West_Asian 8.93
6 Baltic 4.91
7 Eastern_Euro 1.65
8 Red_Sea 0.72
9 Amerindian 0.01

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 North_Italian 6.76
2 Portuguese 8.96
3 Spanish_Galicia 9.36
4 Spanish_Extremadura 9.87
5 Spanish_Cataluna 9.96
6 Spanish_Murcia 10.16
7 Tuscan 10.54
8 Spanish_Castilla_Y_Leon 10.91
9 Spanish_Andalucia 11.83
10 Spanish_Valencia 12.28
11 French 12.71
12 Spanish_Castilla_La_Mancha 12.77
13 Spanish_Cantabria 13.24
14 Spanish_Aragon 14.36
15 Southwest_French 15.29
16 Greek_Thessaly 16.34
17 Italian_Abruzzo 16.42
18 West_Sicilian 16.96
19 South_Dutch 17.54
20 West_German 17.65

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 83.9% North_Italian + 16.1% West_German @ 5.97
2 88.7% North_Italian + 11.3% Orcadian @ 6.02
3 90.2% North_Italian + 9.8% West_Norwegian @ 6.09
4 87.6% North_Italian + 12.4% Southwest_English @ 6.14
5 80% North_Italian + 20% French @ 6.17
6 89.1% North_Italian + 10.9% Southeast_English @ 6.24
7 90.9% North_Italian + 9.1% Norwegian @ 6.25
8 90.3% North_Italian + 9.7% North_Dutch @ 6.26
9 90.7% North_Italian + 9.3% West_Scottish @ 6.29
10 86.2% Portuguese + 13.8% Armenian @ 6.31
11 90.8% North_Italian + 9.2% Irish @ 6.33
12 91.8% North_Italian + 8.2% Swedish @ 6.34
13 85.3% Spanish_Galicia + 14.7% Armenian @ 6.35
14 91.2% North_Italian + 8.8% Danish @ 6.36
15 75.2% North_Italian + 24.8% Spanish_Galicia @ 6.38
16 88.7% North_Italian + 11.3% South_Dutch @ 6.43
17 76.7% North_Italian + 23.3% Portuguese @ 6.5
18 92.4% North_Italian + 7.6% North_German @ 6.51
19 84.1% Spanish_Cataluna + 15.9% Armenian @ 6.51
20 55.2% Spanish_Galicia + 44.8% Tuscan @ 6.54

If8VDiT.png


Similarity Map:

cyF1F2i.png


Eurogenes K13:

Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 North_Atlantic 34.32
2 West_Med 26.54
3 East_Med 18.52
4 Baltic 11
5 West_Asian 8.45
6 Red_Sea 0.92
7 Amerindian 0.24

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 North_Italian 3.55
2 Spanish_Andalucia 7.92
3 Spanish_Extremadura 7.97
4 Portuguese 8.34
5 Spanish_Valencia 8.59
6 Spanish_Murcia 8.74
7 Tuscan 9.11
8 Spanish_Cataluna 9.17
9 Spanish_Galicia 9.71
10 Spanish_Castilla_La_Mancha 9.86
11 Spanish_Castilla_Y_Leon 9.94
12 Spanish_Cantabria 11.66
13 Spanish_Aragon 12.39
14 Southwest_French 13.17
15 French 13.69
16 West_Sicilian 15.8
17 Italian_Abruzzo 15.84
18 Greek_Thessaly 16.64
19 Romanian 17.28
20 Bulgarian 18.05

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 90.9% North_Italian + 9.1% French_Basque @ 2.64
2 77% North_Italian + 23% Spanish_Andalucia @ 2.77
3 54.8% Southwest_French + 45.2% Italian_Abruzzo @ 2.78
4 84.2% Spanish_Valencia + 15.8% Armenian @ 2.81
5 85.2% North_Italian + 14.8% Spanish_Aragon @ 2.87
6 81.2% North_Italian + 18.8% Spanish_Cataluna @ 2.92
7 82.4% North_Italian + 17.6% Spanish_Castilla_La_Mancha @ 2.93
8 80.3% North_Italian + 19.7% Spanish_Valencia @ 2.94
9 84.5% Spanish_Valencia + 15.5% Georgian_Jewish @ 2.96
10 85.7% North_Italian + 14.3% Spanish_Cantabria @ 3.01
11 87.4% North_Italian + 12.6% Southwest_French @ 3.03
12 65.9% Spanish_Valencia + 34.1% Italian_Abruzzo @ 3.05
13 70.7% Spanish_Cataluna + 29.3% South_Italian @ 3.05
14 70.7% Spanish_Valencia + 29.3% Central_Greek @ 3.06
15 82.5% North_Italian + 17.5% Spanish_Murcia @ 3.1
16 69.2% Spanish_Cataluna + 30.8% Central_Greek @ 3.14
17 58% Spanish_Cantabria + 42% Italian_Abruzzo @ 3.18
18 85.7% North_Italian + 14.3% Spanish_Castilla_Y_Leon @ 3.18
19 69.3% Spanish_Andalucia + 30.7% Greek_Thessaly @ 3.19
20 82.6% North_Italian + 17.4% Spanish_Extremadura @ 3.2
Great work mate! Much appreciated.

I don't want to waste your time with requests as you've already done a lot, but I keep wondering what would be the score on the Similarity Map if you single out only Gheg Albanian or North Albanian samples as that would leave out the vast majority of Slavic and Vlach admixture.

I wonder if the score instead of 65 would be around 71 since Epirus in Greece is 59, therefore South Albania should be lets say 59-61.
 
Great work mate! Much appreciated.
I don't want to waste your time with requests as you've already done a lot, but I keep wondering what would be the score on the Similarity Map if you single out only Gheg Albanian or North Albanian samples as that would leave out the vast majority of Slavic and Vlach admixture.
I wonder if the score instead of 65 would be around 71 since Epirus in Greece is 59, therefore South Albania should be lets say 59-61.
Slavic ancestry is unlikely to be the only thing pulling the Western Balkans away from that sample. There seems to be an additional layer of West Asian ancestry, which makes the Bronze Age Croatian sample look rather 'western' compared to the people who live in the region today.
 
Slavic ancestry is unlikely to be the only thing pulling the Western Balkans away from that sample. There seems to be an additional layer of West Asian ancestry, which makes the Bronze Age Croatian sample look rather 'western' compared to the people who live in the region today.

Croats plot pretty much between BA Croatia and East Slavs. Bulgarian case is, however, more interesting.
 
Croats plot pretty much between BA Croatia and East Slavs. Bulgarian case is, however, more interesting.

Yeah, Thrace should be one of the entry points of metal age West Asian ancestry into mainland Europe. Heavy Slavic input muddies things a bit, so it's difficult to say much more without ancient samples.
 
I uploaded Bronze Age Bulgarian I2163, whose Y-DNA was R1a (but Indo-Iranian branch Z93, not Slavic):

https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/ancient-human-dna_41837#11/42.1360/25.5602

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimitrovgrad,_Bulgaria

6HCLVgb.png


GEDmatch Genesis kit number - MW2273712

Eurogenes K15 results:

Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 North_Sea 35.52
2 Eastern_Euro 19.23
3 Baltic 13.65
4 Atlantic 13.45
5 West_Asian 12.95
6 South_Asian 3.15
7 Amerindian 2.05

Single Population Sharing:

# Population (source) Distance
1 North_Swedish 13.52
2 Swedish 15.34
3 Finnish 15.54
4 Southwest_Finnish 15.82
5 Norwegian 15.93
6 East_German 17.21
7 North_German 17.24
8 West_Norwegian 17.25
9 Danish 17.71
10 Hungarian 17.94
11 East_Finnish 18.02
12 North_Dutch 18.06
13 West_German 18.34
14 South_Polish 19.7
15 Ukrainian_Lviv 19.72
16 Ukrainian 19.84
17 Estonian 20.15
18 Orcadian 20.35
19 West_Scottish 20.42
20 South_Dutch 20.48

Mixed Mode Population Sharing:

# Primary Population (source) Secondary Population (source) Distance
1 75.5% North_Swedish + 24.5% Tabassaran @ 7.58
2 77.6% North_Swedish + 22.4% Lezgin @ 8.3
3 79% North_Swedish + 21% Chechen @ 8.67
4 73.4% Swedish + 26.6% Tabassaran @ 9.11
5 81.6% North_Swedish + 18.4% Adygei @ 9.45
6 82.1% North_Swedish + 17.9% Ossetian @ 9.52
7 72.7% Norwegian + 27.3% Tabassaran @ 9.53
8 80.9% North_Swedish + 19.1% Kabardin @ 9.57
9 80.3% North_Swedish + 19.7% Afghan_Pashtun @ 9.58
10 82.5% North_Swedish + 17.5% Kalash @ 9.59
11 80.1% North_Swedish + 19.9% Kumyk @ 9.61
12 82.3% North_Swedish + 17.7% North_Ossetian @ 9.62
13 84.8% North_Swedish + 15.2% Abhkasian @ 9.66
14 81.6% North_Swedish + 18.4% Balkar @ 9.72
15 75.6% Swedish + 24.4% Lezgin @ 9.77
16 84.2% North_Swedish + 15.8% Georgian @ 9.81
17 70.5% West_Norwegian + 29.5% Tabassaran @ 9.87
18 83.5% North_Swedish + 16.5% Balochi @ 10.04
19 74.8% Norwegian + 25.2% Lezgin @ 10.11
20 84% North_Swedish + 16% Brahui @ 10.13

Eurogenes K15 PCA:

Abscisse (x-axis): 534 pixel, Ordonnée (y-axis): 144 pixel

FvAghvC.png


Similarity Maps:

Russia & Asia:

pKDbtSS.png


And Europe:

9Ei4KCZ.png


^^^
From Eurogenes Blog:

https://eurogenes.blogspot.com/2017/05/steppe-invaders-in-bronze-age-balkans.html

"Bulgaria_MLBA I2163: Y-hg R1a1a1b2 mt-hg U5a2 1750-1625 calBCE

The most Yamnaya-like of all of the Balkan samples in Mathieson et al. 2017, and, as far as I can see based on his overall genome-wide results, probably indistinguishable from the contemporaneous Srubnaya people of the Pontic-Caspian steppe. He also belongs to Y-haplogroup R1a-Z93, which is a marker typical of Srubnaya and other closely related steppe groups such as Andronovo, Potapovka and Sintashta. So there's very little doubt that he's either a migrant or a recent descendant of migrants to the Balkans from the Pontic-Caspian steppe."

=====

Edit:

Some more calcs:

His results in puntDNAL K12:

puntDNAL K12 Ancient Oracle

Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 European_HG 45.79
2 Caucasus_HG 27.88
3 Anatolian_NF 19.89
4 Beringian 3.41
5 Amerindian 1.41
6 South_Asian 1.31

Least-squares method.

Using 1 population approximation:
1 Srubnaya_I0232 @ 3.134314
2 Sintashta_MBA_RISE395 @ 3.797682
3 Corded_Ware_Germany_I0103 @ 3.900799
4 Andronovo_SG_RISE505 @ 4.797025
5 Corded_Ware_Germany_I0104 @ 5.052248
6 Sintashta_MBA_RISE_386 @ 5.825454
7 Srubnaya_I0430 @ 7.175141
8 Potapovka_I0419 @ 7.469271
9 Corded_Ware_Estonia_RISE00 @ 8.079706
10 BattleAxe_Sweden_SG_RISE94 @ 11.250714
11 Bell_Beaker_Czech_RISE569 @ 12.764265
12 Bell_Beaker_Germany_I1549 @ 13.424397
13 BenzigerodeHeimburg_LN_I0059 @ 13.650426
14 Nordic_LN_SG_RISE97 @ 14.740792
15 Unetice_EBA_I0117 @ 14.801845
16 Halberstadt_LBA_I0099 @ 14.956509
17 Yamnaya_Samara_I0443 @ 15.883912
18 Alberstedt_LN_I0118 @ 16.527464
19 Scythian_IA_I0247 @ 16.988422
20 Afanasievo_SG_RISE511 @ 19.113752

Using 2 populations approximation:
1 50% Andronovo_SG_RISE505 +50% Srubnaya_I0232 @ 2.810591

Using 3 populations approximation:
1 50% Andronovo_SG_RISE505 +25% Srubnaya_I0232 +25% Srubnaya_I0232 @ 2.810591

Using 4 populations approximation:
1 Andronovo_SG_RISE505 + Srubnaya_I0232 + Srubnaya_I0232 + Srubnaya_I0232 @ 2.597268
(...)

His results in MDLP K11:

Admix Results (sorted):

# Population Percent
1 WHG 40.86
2 EHG 31.94
3 Neolithic 14.98
4 Iran-Mesolithic 7.98
5 Amerindian 2.13

Least-squares method.

Using 1 population approximation:
1 Srubnaya_LBA @ 4.859118
2 Sintashta_MBA @ 4.960232
3 Andronovo_Eneolithic @ 7.546394
4 Corded_Ware_Germany @ 7.561746
5 Corded_Ware_Germany @ 8.130066
6 Poltavka_MBA_outlier @ 8.672397
7 Corded_Ware_Estonia @ 9.067833
8 Nordic_BattleAxe @ 10.487313
9 Potapovka_BA @ 10.598248
10 Srubnaya_LBA_outlier @ 10.608652
11 Corded_Ware_Proto_Unetice_Poland @ 11.877763
12 Irish_BA @ 12.260816
13 BenzigerodeHeimburg_LN @ 12.415079
14 Nordic_BA @ 12.691585
15 Karsdorf_LN @ 13.087960
16 Nordic_LN @ 13.605470
17 Nordic_IA @ 13.647160
18 Unetice_MBA @ 13.749290
19 Unetice_EBA @ 14.416342
20 Nordic_LBA @ 14.966543

Using 2 populations approximation:
1 50% Nordic_BattleAxe +50% Potapovka_BA @ 1.818545

Using 3 populations approximation:
1 50% Afanasievo_Eneolithic +25% Hungary_BA +25% Sintashta_MBA @ 1.350623

Using 4 populations approximation:
1 Hungary_BA + Sintashta_MBA + Yamnaya_Kalmykia_LBA + Yamnaya_Kalmykia_LBA @ 1.237987
(...)
 
...........
 
Last edited:
I was thinking and it is possible that this sample could belong to an ethnic Celtic, from Balkans.
If more samples with similar clustering are found in different places from Balkans, only then is possible to say that the Thracians from those times were clustering closer to the North Italians and people from Iberia.

WHat special links with Celts based on this? Please, explain
 
Agree on most of your points. According to ancient Greek mythology, Illyrians, Thracians and Celts were related.
vaRj161.png

Alp - Alb roots might be related. Depending on geographical location the root might stand for white, while in others it means mountains.
In Italian Alba means dusk. The side the Sun Rises.
Until the middle of the second millennium BC, the Proto-Italo-Celto-Illyro-Thraco-Dacian was a single language. After that some phonological change appeared in different dialects of this proto-language. Namely in the dialect from the middle of this group from which evolved the Continental Celtic and the Oscan and Umbrian, the labiovelar (kʷ, gʷ) turned into bi-labials (p, b). The innovations affects all these languages (one should remember that the forefathers of Oscans and Umbrians migrated from the upper Danube valley into the Italian peninsula)

The Epirotes of ancient times lived where Albanians live today. Thucydides shows that the Epirotes were Illyrians, and they were speaking two different dialects. Strabo (7, 7) also shows that they lived south of river Shkumb and Illyrians to the north. The Romans used to make a clear distinction between Illyrians proprie dicti (proper) and Illyrians in general. In their understanding, Epirots were not Illyrians proper. Illyrians proper were those from Illyria, Dalmatia, and the two Pannonias.


.
.
I have previous supplied ( last 2 months ) another recent paper that oscans and umbrians ( sabellic and sabines ) migrated from upper danube valley into Italy
 
fZwlSns.png


Not a very good fit, but that's the best I arrived at with what nMonte offered (and my patience allowed!) within an appropriate time frame.
 
Until the middle of the second millennium BC, the Proto-Italo-Celto-Illyro-Thraco-Dacian was a single language. After that some phonological change appeared in different dialects of this proto-language. Namely in the dialect from the middle of this group from which evolved the Continental Celtic and the Oscan and Umbrian, the labiovelar (kʷ, gʷ) turned into bi-labials (p, b). The innovations affects all these languages (one should remember that the forefathers of Oscans and Umbrians migrated from the upper Danube valley into the Italian peninsula)

The Epirotes of ancient times lived where Albanians live today. Thucydides shows that the Epirotes were Illyrians, and they were speaking two different dialects. Strabo (7, 7) also shows that they lived south of river Shkumb and Illyrians to the north. The Romans used to make a clear distinction between Illyrians proprie dicti (proper) and Illyrians in general. In their understanding, Epirots were not Illyrians proper. Illyrians proper were those from Illyria, Dalmatia, and the two Pannonias.


.
.
I have previous supplied ( last 2 months ) another recent paper that oscans and umbrians ( sabellic and sabines ) migrated from upper danube valley into Italy

These languages have surely been close at first but scholars seem saying that BI S-Illyrian only is close to Getian (Dacian) and Thracian, and that Dalmatian and Pannonian were different, more akin to centum Italics. And I think that a part of the old western IEans including proto-Italics and proto-Celtics more or less close to Lusitanian, Ligurian and other unkown or badly known dialects had broken off from the ancient common branch of the central Danube regions. My opinion is that only the ones kept closer to Hungary have later undergone the labialisation, by a phenomenon of wave maybe linked to new elites integrated in the ancient groups in the Urnfields/Hallstatt meanwhile (?). I don't believe in distinct phenomenons here, rather in a propagation during a long enough time with slight demic exchanges and contacts kept between neighbouring pops despite the cores of the tongues families were already well separated. Even bilinguism of some parts of the pops cannot be completely excluded. Surely this kind of phonologic "waves" were more possible in time whe the languages families of same far origin were still close enough, compared to present. A substratum explanation seems less evident here, but I keep in mind the late propagation of the uvular devibrated 'R', BI in Germany and in France, withtout mentioning other languages : substrata here? snobism? natural convergence?
 
In this tool: http://gen3553.pagesperso-orange.fr/ADN/K15.htm

I3313 Bronze Age Dalmatia: Abscisse (x-axis): 338 pixel, Ordonnée (y-axis): 271 pixel
I5769 Iron Age Bulgaria: Abscisse (x-axis): 446 pixel, Ordonnée (y-axis): 393 pixel

So there was a west-east cline already in Pre-Slavic Balkans:

BvQlw0v.png

My sample plots slightly northeast of the ancient Bulgaria sample. Is that one Thracian?
 
WHat special links with Celts based on this? Please, explain

Well, it is known that Celts came from Asia to Europe.
It is also known that Hallstatt was a location where Celts were dwelling in the Bronze Age and I think that in 1100 AD, Celts were present in Hallstatt.
So I supposed that Celts came from Asia and passed through Balkans and South Romania and from there, they moved North, after which they reached Hallstatt.
 
Well, it is known that Celts came from Asia to Europe.
It is also known that Hallstatt was a location where Celts were dwelling in the Bronze Age and I think that in 1100 AD, Celts were present in Hallstatt.
So I supposed that Celts came from Asia and passed through Balkans and South Romania and from there, they moved North, after which they reached Hallstatt.
What are you basing this on? The Celts didn't come from Asian, they originate in Europe. Pre-Celtic was certainly spoken somewhere north of the Alps and possibly shows a connection to the Unetice, in turn Proto-Celtic is linked to the Urnfield and Hallstatt cultures. They clearly originate around central Europe and not Asia.
 
My sample plots slightly northeast of the ancient Bulgaria sample. Is that one Thracian?
Very likely that it was a Thracian. Going by the area where this sample was found, it's possible that it was part of the Moesi tribe of Thracians.
 
Another sample from Balkans, from Iron Age, clusters close and more "South" of Italians from Tuscany.
https://www.eupedia.com/forum/threads/37958-Iron-Age-Balkan-DNA-on-GEDmatch?p=569642#post569642
So this sample was clearly a ThracoCelt.
See that it has clearly more North Atlantic admixture, than the sample from Lyaskovets.
I don't know where you are getting this "Thraco-Celt" origin from. During this time period the Proto-Celts were still somewhere around central Europe in the Hallstatt culture. There isn't any evidence to suggest that the sample was partly Celtic or of Celtic origin. The Iron Age and Bronze Age are two separate periods, you shouldn't compare a Bronze Age sample with an Iron Age one. Iron Age samples should have more Neolithic admix going by how they were already mixed at that point, whilst this isn't necessarily the case for the Bronze Age. You should look at how the Bronze Age Bulgarian sample was nearly indistinguishable from Srubnaya samples, far more northern steppe shifted than this Bronze Age Croatian sample.

This Bronze Age Croatian sample is more like the BA Hungarian samples but with more of a SE shift.

egtlch.jpg
 
Very likely that it was a Thracian. Going by the area where this sample was found, it's possible that it was part of the Moesi tribe of Thracians.

I doubt it was a Thracian, or at least not a relatively pure Thracian. Thracians are clearly mostly Steppe - they're basically described in exactly the same way (down to appearances such as being very red haired) as Scythians. Maybe there was a Helot-style system going on (similarly to Thracians and Scythians, Spartans were described in the same way but to a lesser extent - they were seen as more civilised, and the descriptions of red hair aren't nearly as prevalent (I'm taking both of those to mean they were less Steppe-admixed, a big assumption but I bet it's true), though still common in the grand scheme of things). Also with the Scythian case weren't there some mostly Med. types amongst them?

I2163 is a likely example of a Srubnaya departure to the Balkans that can be associated with the ancestors of Thracians, so this is quite different. If it were the case that "pure" Thracians like I2163 (he's too old for that but just go with it) mixed so heavily so as to gain a mostly Med genetic signature, there would have to be heavy selection for red-haired genes to explain the red-headedness mentioned in antiquity.
 
I doubt it was a Thracian, or at least not a relatively pure Thracian. Thracians are clearly mostly Steppe - they're basically described in exactly the same way (down to appearances such as being very red haired) as Scythians. Maybe there was a Helot-style system going on (similarly to Thracians and Scythians, Spartans were described in the same way but to a lesser extent - they were seen as more civilised, and the descriptions of red hair aren't nearly as prevalent (I'm taking both of those to mean they were less Steppe-admixed, a big assumption but I bet it's true), though still common in the grand scheme of things). Also with the Scythian case weren't there some mostly Med. types amongst them?

I2163 is a likely example of a Srubnaya departure to the Balkans that can be associated with the ancestors of Thracians, so this is quite different. If it were the case that "pure" Thracians like I2163 (he's too old for that but just go with it) mixed so heavily so as to gain a mostly Med genetic signature, there would have to be heavy selection for red-haired genes to explain the red-headedness mentioned in antiquity.

There are a bunch of depictions of Thracians. Few redheads. Maybe the Ostrusha woman, but her hair looks more auburn.
 
I doubt it was a Thracian, or at least not a relatively pure Thracian. Thracians are clearly mostly Steppe - they're basically described in exactly the same way (down to appearances such as being very red haired) as Scythians. Maybe there was a Helot-style system going on (similarly to Thracians and Scythians, Spartans were described in the same way but to a lesser extent - they were seen as more civilised, and the descriptions of red hair aren't nearly as prevalent (I'm taking both of those to mean they were less Steppe-admixed, a big assumption but I bet it's true), though still common in the grand scheme of things). Also with the Scythian case weren't there some mostly Med. types amongst them?

I2163 is a likely example of a Srubnaya departure to the Balkans that can be associated with the ancestors of Thracians, so this is quite different. If it were the case that "pure" Thracians like I2163 (he's too old for that but just go with it) mixed so heavily so as to gain a mostly Med genetic signature, there would have to be heavy selection for red-haired genes to explain the red-headedness mentioned in antiquity.
During the 6-5th centuries BC the area where this sample was from, and the vast majority of Bulgaria for that matter, was inhabited by Thracians. There wasn't any other group in that area. This sample obviously wasn't a pure Thracian or a Proto-Thracian speaker, as is suggested by it's genetics which are vastly different from the Bronze Age Bulgarian one which is more likely to have been representative for Proto-Thracians. This sample, like probably all Palaeo-Balkan groups at this point, was a mix of the Bronze Age invaders and the older(probably Sardinian-like) population. Despite it being radically different from Proto-Thracians, it was still likely a Thracian as it probably spoke Thracian.

There was also another Iron Age Thracian sample from Svilengrad(found in the Mezek tombs) that showed this southern shift(Sardinian-like), it is 100% clear that it was a Thracian. It turned out to be E-Z1919(maybe V13). However, another Thracian sample was found in a tumulus in southeastern Bulgaria but this one turned out to have been more Steppe shifted. It may have been R1b-Z2103.

As for the red hair among Thracians, I don't think ancient descriptions should be taken too seriously. They certainly didn't have a majority red haired population in my opinion.
 
During the 6-5th centuries BC the area where this sample was from, and the vast majority of Bulgaria for that matter, was inhabited by Thracians. There wasn't any other group in that area. This sample obviously wasn't a pure Thracian or a Proto-Thracian speaker, as is suggested by it's genetics which are vastly different from the Bronze Age Bulgarian one which is more likely to have been representative for Proto-Thracians. This sample, like probably all Palaeo-Balkan groups at this point, was a mix of the Bronze Age invaders and the older(probably Sardinian-like) population. Despite it being radically different from Proto-Thracians, it was still likely a Thracian as it probably spoke Thracian.

There was also another Iron Age Thracian sample from Svilengrad(found in the Mezek tombs) that showed this southern shift(Sardinian-like), it is 100% clear that it was a Thracian. It turned out to be E-Z1919(maybe V13). However, another Thracian sample was found in a tumulus in southeastern Bulgaria but this one turned out to have been more Steppe shifted. It may have been R1b-Z2103.

As for the red hair among Thracians, I don't think ancient descriptions should be taken too seriously. They certainly didn't have a majority red haired population in my opinion.

Well not majority but unless all Greeks were colourblind or just plain stupid the point has to be accepted. It would be like saying the Irish are red-haired, not like 90% of them having red hair
 

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