Genetic evidence suggests relationship between contemporary Bulgarian population and Iron Age steppe dwellers from Pontic-Caspian steppe.

Abstract

Ancient DNA analysis on the ancestry of European populations conducted in the last decade came to the puzzling conclusion that while all contemporary European populations can be best represented as an admixture of 3 ancestral populations -Early European Neolithic farmers (ENF), Western Hunter-Gatherers (WHG) and Ancestral North Eurasians (ANE), contemporary Bulgarians and few other SEE populations can also be represented as an admixture of two groups only - Early European Neolithic farmers and contemporary Caucasian people equally well.\n\nIf modeled as an admixture of two groups only, the ANE component presented in contemporary Bulgarians would have arrived on the Balkans with hypothetical ANE (Ancestral North Eurasians)-rich Caucasian population.\n\nIn this paper, we test the hypothesis that increased Caucasian component in contemporary SE Europeans, has been introduced on the Balkans by migrating Iron Age steppe dwellers from Pontic-Caspian steppe. We analyze available DNA datasets from both ancient and contemporary samples and identify a Caucasian signal, carried to Balkan populations by the nomadic dwellers of Early Medieval Saltovo-Mayaki Culture, located on the northern slope of Caucasus Mountains and adjacent steppe regions. We also identify two additional sources of Caucasian admixture in SEE populations, which are not specific to Bulgarian population only. Based on the results from our population genetic analysis we suggest that contemporary Bulgarians are an admixture of ancestral Slavonic groups, rich on locally absorbed EEF DNA and Proto Bulgarians, rich on Caucasian DNA and genetically related to the bearers of the Saltovo-Mayaki Culture from 8-10 century AD.