Early medieval Bulgaria

"Words and Phrases, Unchanged for Centuries.

Containing a rich glossary and in excess of 300 words and phrases, the texts demonstrate the strength of the Macedonian language through preservation.

Following is a comparison of sentences between the texts and the Macedonian
dialect of Bitola as spoken today.

16th cent., Kostur dialect
21st cent., Bitola dialect

Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostavi ni da spime, ela da jame, i da pieme, dol da pojdime, da rabotime.
Gospodine, brate, da si zdrav, da si prost, ostai ne da spiame, ela da jaime, i da piame, dolu da pojdime, da rabotime.

Imate hljap-o da kupime, imate vino da kupime, ot koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogasko.
Imate lep da kupime, imate vino da kupime, od koja strana da pojdime vo
Bogatsko.

As can be clearly noticed, most of the vocabulary and grammar is identical.
All of the elements that would later be required to rejuvinate the Macedonian people as they were shaking off centuries of subjugation, were present during this period. The language of the people had solidified, a tradition of heraldry and symbolism had developed which incorporated the emblem of a rapant lion and historical figures from Macedonia's past, and the churches continued preserve the local customs and serve as cultural centres for the population. The significance of all these elements together cannot be overstated, the language of medieval Macedonia is the same as the language of the Macedonians today. Unfortunately, only a small portion of the larger amount of Macedonian literature from the Middle Ages has survived, much of it being looted and destroyed by Greek-speaking officials, clerics and teachers. Nevertheless, Macedonian as a language reached its current form centuries before the creation of the Balkan states in the 19th and 20th centuries. "

In his critical edition of Liutprand's Antapodosis, Paolo Chiesa rejected a hypothesis advanced by Michele Bandini regarding the spelling and meaning of the nickname reportedly given by the Byzantines to Symeon of Bulgaria (Antapodosis III.29). The present paper discusses Chiesa's objections to Bandini's conjecture and interpretation of this passage. In conclusion, it turns out that Bandini's correction of emiargon into emiergon has to be taken into due consideration.

Zlatostruy and the so-called Knyazhiy (or Knyazheskiy) Izbornik are among the most interesting and most important Old Bulgarian anthologies. The former was a collection of more than 120 Chrysostomian homilies that became a source for miscellanies of stable content (known as “redactions of Zlatostruy”) and strongly influenced the Lenten homiliaries and other early florilegia. The latter is a compilation from compilations, as William Veder defined it, which means a selection from various previously made and subsequently revised Slavonic translations from Greek.
Both Zlatostruy and the Knyazhiy Izbornik have much in common: time and place of origin, a connection with the Bulgarian royal court in their early history, similarities in terms of structure and in the way the sources were adapted. Last, but not least there are textual coincidences between them. The article deals with juxtaposition of the common passages.
Their analysis leads to conclusion that collections under consideration do not depend on one another, but transmit a larger protocollection, which contained translations, excerpts and gnomai.

Златоструй и так называемый Княжий Изборник являются одними из самых интересных и наиболее важных древнеболгарских антологиях. Первый памятник является коллекция из более чем 120 Златоустовых проповедей, которые стали источником для сборниках постоянного состава ("редакции Златоструя") и сильно повлияли на великопостные гомилетические сборники и на другие ранние флорилегии. Второй представляет собой компиляция из компиляций, по определение У. Федера, что означает выбор из различных ранее сделанных и впоследствии переделанных славянских переводов с греческого. Златоструй и так Княжий Изборник имеют много общего: время и место происхождения, связь с царском дворе в своей ранней истории, сходство с точки зрения структуры и в том, как источники были адаптированы. Не в последнюю очередь между ними есть и буквальные текстовые совпадения. В статье сопоставляются общие отрывки. В результате анализа делается вывод, что рассматриваемые коллекции не зависят друг от друга, но передають более обширную протоколлекцию, содержащую переводы, отрывки и мудрые изречения.

Tengrism, Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, these are the three most popular areas of religious research in Bulgarian scholarship regarding the pre-Christian beliefs in Danube Bulgaria prior to AD 864. This paper tries to shed light to both the strong and weak sides of these hypotheses.

Abstract: This study discusses the considerable efforts carried out by Volga Bulgaria in its endeavour to
establish resolute relations with Baghdad nnder the Abbasid Caliphate. The study employs a historical
approach that involves systematic organization and assessment of data from past writings such as records from
Ibn Fadlan. Data collection involved the qualitative method including library research while data were analysed
through text and docwnent analysis comparison as well as induction and deduction. The objective of this study
is to effectuate an Islamic state. The study fmmd that the relations between Baghdad and Volga Bulgaria had
a positive impact on the development of Volga Bulgaria as an Islamic state and propelled a momentlllll for it to
attain its zenith in the history of Islam in Central Asia. However, this high point did not last as a result of a
series of attacks by the Mongols in the early 1230 A. C. which ultimately led to its conquest by former in 1236.

Roughly fifteen to eighteen Tárkány toponyms have been documented in the tenth-century Hungarian settlement territory in the Carpathian Basin. Some of these have survived up to the present in the name of a settlement or a field name, some are known from thirteenth-century or later charters. We may assume that these place-names are among the earliest Hungarian toponyms. Although
contemporary sources do not mention the title or the occupation name tarchan or tarkán in relation to the ancient Hungarians, linguistic and historical studies have shown that this designation, preserved in geographic toponyms, was probably contemporaneous with the place-names formed from the names of the seven Hungarian tribes as recorded by Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his "De administrando imperii".
The mention of Avar and Bulgar tarqans in the Tisza region in the ninth century are an indication that this title was known in the area later conquered by the ancient Hungarians: there was a tarqan (tarcan primatibus) in the hring of the Avar khagan at the time of Pepin of Italy’s campaign against the Avars in 796, and we know of a tarqan who was one of the dignitaries of the Bulgar khan Omurtag (814–831) (Onegabon ’/ze/ra-tarkan’). Late Avar settlements and cemeteries had been earlier identified in the broader area of two sites, (Mező-)Tárkány in County Heves and Tárkány in County Komárom, that were investigated archaeologically. A tenth-century grave with an ornate purse plate is known within an area of 10 km of each of these
sites (Besenyőtelek-Szőrhát and Bana, respectively). The toponym Bő, interpreted as designating the leader of a kindred, is known in their vicinity.
In sum, the main argument of this study is that the Tárkány toponyms of the Carpathian Basin preserve the memory of the tarqan’s office of local late Avar and Bulgar origin that was incorporated into the early Hungarian military and regional administrative system. The name of the tarqan organisation, originating from the Avar and Bulgar period, was preserved in the memory and traditions of the local population in these regions for two or three generations, and was revived around the turn of the ninth and tenth century in the Hungarian Principality.

"The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, as we read it, is already the literary place of a cultural encounter
over centuries between an old Germanic heroic story and the Christian culture of the writer, a novel
of our days which re-uses the story is the continuation of a tradition already inscribed in the old
poem. But in the poem another main cultural encounter takes place. If a culture can, or can try to,
define itself and narrate its own survival through its hero, a hero needs an antagonist to define itself:
Beowulf’s antagonist is the well-known monster called Grendel. The article focuses on the
encounter with the otherness represented by Grendel in the original Beowulf and on how it changes
in its rewriting 'Eater of the Dead' by Michael Crichton (1997): from the threat morally and ethically
posed of the medieval poem to the contemporary anthropological threat revealing our fear for
previous stages of evolution. Crichton’s novel combines Beowulf’s story with Ibn Fadlan’s account
of his journey among the Bulghars, which gives the novel a geographical and multi-cultural
approach that was absent in the Anglo-Saxon poem. An epic poem is always a literary space where
cultural encounters take place, but these encounters have to change their features to be felt as
relevant in another time and in another culture."

There is not substantial reserve that in entire medieval epoch captured warriors and abducted non-combatants have been used as means of extracting the military, political and economic benefits. It is well acknowledged that practices concerning prisoners of war depend on the selected goals as well as the course of the conflict and attitude towards own warriors and subjects captured by the rival power. The fate of early medieval war-captives caught up in enemy's hands during the clashes between Bulgaria and Byzantium makes no exeption. Along with this, it looks as if there are enough things to add. For example, the exchange of prisoners of war is one of the most important features which need further specification and analyses. The impact of such a practice on the Byzantino-Bulgarian relations still is unstudied enough. Even scarce and almost totally ignored is the attention to the legal status of Byzantine subjects who were taken into captivity by Bulga-rians. In this sense, the scientific interest within the scope of me-tioned topics is an inseparable part of the efforts to give more density and depth of knowledge for the early medieval past of the Balkans.

The modelling and visualisation of networks is based on the material in: M. Mullett, Theophylact of Ochrid. Reading the Letters of a Byzantine Archbishop. Birmingham 1997.

The first graph is a visualisation of the connections between letters in localities between which these letters were exchanged (" 2mode network").

The second graph is a visualisation of the weighted network of localities on the basis of Theophylact´s correspondence; two localities are connected if letters of Theophylact were exchanged between them. Links are scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

The third graph visualises these connections between localities on a map. Links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them. The size of nodes is scaled according to their number of connections within the network ("degree").

The fourth graph is a "zoom" into these geographical visualisation of the network for the Western Balkans; links are again scaled according to the number of letters within Theophylact´s collection documenting exchanges between them.

For the localisation of sites within the historical region of Macedonia cf. also the upcoming volumes on Macedonia (Southern Part) by Peter Soustal and on Macedonia (Northern Part) by Mihailo Popovic within the series "Tabula Imperii Byzantini" (http://www.oeaw.ac.at/imafo/die-abteilungen/byzanzforschung/communities-landscapes/historische-geographie/)

For any further questions, please contact Johannes.Preiser-Kapeller@oeaw.ac.at.

В книгу вошли статьи и развернутые рецензии 1998–2009 годов. Все ранее публиковавшиеся статьи были заново переработаны, но в текст рецензий были внесены лишь минимальные исправления. Одна статья публикуется впервые. Том состоит из четырех разделов: 1) кирилло-мефодиевистика представлена исследованиями, посвященными литературной параллели к гл. 6 Пространного жития Кирилла Философа («Бог наш – как морская глубина»), агиографическим сведениям о деятельности Мефодия в монастыре Полихрон и отражению в произведениях кирилло-мефодиевского цикла прения римского папы Сильвестра I с раввином Замбрием; 2) древнеболгарский раздел составили работы о развитии письменной культуры Восточной Болгарии до 971 года; структурных особенностях Типографского кодекса № 14, содержащего Саввину книгу; редких лексических вариантах Ватиканского палимпсеста; отождествлению еще четырех листов из Драгиина четвероевангелия, а также рецензии на два издания: Греческо-славянский конкорданс к древнейшим спискам славянского Евангелия и Комментированный указатель к Ассеманиеву евангелию; 3) древнесербский раздел представляет результаты изучения аномальной нумерации чтений после Пятидесятницы в полноапракосном евангелии № 8 Хиландарского монастыря; происхождения, особенностей языка и структуры столпного апракоса Равулы (ок. 1353 г.) и бывшей рукописи белградской Народной библиотеки (октоиха 1353 г.) в Гарварде; 4) древнерусский раздел содержит статью о происхождении названия Пролога и две рецензии: на книгу Ф. Томсона «Рецепция византийской культуры в средневековой Руси» и на исследование Л. Стенсланда о древнерусской толковой азбуке.

"The role of the Great Bulgaria is supposed to be very important for the ethnic identity formation
of the tribes that were part of this confederation. Some of them kept their own identity, but others, most likely,
after the disintegration of the polity, accepted the ethnonym of the Bulgars that was the name of its ruling elite
(thereby the disappearance from the ethnic map of such tribal alliances as the Kutrigurs, Utigurs, Saragurs, and
Antes is very indicative). Though there was a mechanism of the acceptance of a foreign ethnonym with the
system of fictive kinship, after the disintegration of nomadic polities some tribes tried to avoid this procedure,
using their membership in a tribal alliance as an occasion for adopting a name of former famous conquerors.
Such a situation developed after the disintegration of the Great Bulgaria into independent groups.
The similar situation arose after the death of the Bulgar ruler khan Kubrat and further disintegration of
the Great Bulgaria. A common culture was just beginning to emerge in this polyethnic confederation that
included ethnoses of Turkic, Scytho-Sarmatian and Slavic origin. A cultural exchange was organized between
the nomadic and sedentary population, but it wasn’t a cultural symbiosis yet. The successors of the Great
Bulgaria migrated to the different parts of Europe (the First Bulgarian Empire, the Volga Bulgars, the “Inner
Bulgars” of the Pontic-Caspian steppe) demonstrate substantial difference in the material culture. Thus, the
immigrants to the Danube mostly belonged to Slavic and Scytho-Sarmatian (“Sarmatian-Alanic”) tribes; the
Turkic people were in minority there. From this follows that both «Sarmatian-Alanic» tribes and the Slavs
belonging to this migratory wave accepted the ethnonym «Bulgars» as their self-name."

Among finds from 1924-1936 and 1968-1991 an overwhelming number of remains of silver and other non-ferrous metallurgy was identified which escaped attention of previous archaeologists. Morphological and functional classification and SEM-EDS analyses of various categories of finds attest to mainly massive silver production which was to a lesser extent accompanied by gold and copper-alloy metalworking. Spatial distribution, find context and typological classification of the finds clearly show existence of a large production zone situated within the ruler´s residence and working during late 10th and early 11th centuries. One of the most important findings is that the early medieval Bohemian rulers HAD access to silver ore (of whatever form it was) and that they were not dependent solely on Arabic silver coins exchanged for slaves etc. as supposed by historiographic mainstream until now. We further hypothesize that these workshops were part of a broader silver economy system of the incipient Bohemian state, which comprised issues of the first Czech coins as well as production of other types of valuables and which was organized and directly controlled by the rulers of the Přemyslid dynasty.

The article traces back all early patristic pieces of evidence of the nature and appearance of the Antichrist, summarizes out his mentions in the Old Testament and New Testament and gives additional information for the calculation of the number 666. A peculiar Anti-Jewish trace is highlighted, as well as the reasons for its presence in the early Christian literature is discussed. The paper also focuses on De Christo and Antichristo by Hippolytus of Rome and points out its importance for the patristic studies and their connection to the Slavonic manuscript tradition.

Ostentatious finger-rings from Early Medieval Moravia (9th-10th century). Remarks on chronology and origin of the Great Moravian luxurious jewellery.
This article deals with 29 Early Medieval finger-rings found, mostly in cemeteries, in Moravia (Czech Republic). They are made of gold, silver, gilded silver or gilded bronze. Each finger-ring consists of two parts – hoop and bezel – made of sheet metal and soldered together, and decorated with granulation, filigree, inlays of glass or semi-precious stones; only two finger-rings are cast as one piece. The finger-rings are classified into 8 types (A to H), some with subtypes. The author outlines the current state of chronology of Early Medieval jewellery in Moravia and discusses the dating of finger-rings: most of the precisely-datable pieces fall into the older period of the Great Moravian Empire, i.e. the first half of the 9th century. The main concern of the study is the question of the origin of Moravian finger-rings. The author sketches the current state of research of Early Medieval finger-rings in Central and South-eastern Europe (ca. 6th–12th century) and searches for parallels in the Moravian types. In Moravian material, he tries to identify structural and decorative elements that could distinguish imported pieces, their imitations and local products. However, in large measure the sorting of Moravian finger-rings into these three groups remains hypothetical. On the whole, it is evident that the finger-rings found in Moravian cemeteries are based on Mediterranean models. Probably the first specimens (or their immediate producers) came to Moravia in the 8th century, from Byzantine cities on the Adriatic coast, and local production of similar finger-rings in Moravian workshops followed soon afterwards.

This paper focuses on the Old Testament Book of Daniel, its earliest translations in Old Church Slavonic and reveals several differences among them and tries to suppose the period when these translations were made. Each version contains various translation techniques according to the character of work and for what purpose it was translated. All versions of the book are examined no matter how scattered or fragmentary they are. Special attention is given to the fragments in the First Miscellany of Tsar Simeon (Izbornik of 1073) and their translation and connection with the other Old Bulgarian versions of the Book of Daniel.

The author examines data on the early Assenids in the Ancient Rus historical work, the Povest’ vremennykh let, and the date of their migration to today’s Bulgaria. The Assenids, named after three brothers Assen, Peter, and Kaloian, led the uprising against the Byzantine authorities and re-established the Bulgarian Tsardom in 1185 or 1186. The author offers arguments in support of their neglected Cuman origin in the PVL. He also draws a dynastic line – Kniaz Assen (d. 1082), his son Aepa (d. 1117), and his unnamed granddaughter who married Kniaz George Vladimirovich in 1108. By comparing the two main versions of the PVL (the Laurentian and the Hypatian) on the Assenids, the author argues that A. Shakhmatov’s initial simplified hypothesis – that the latter descends from the former – better explains relations between both texts. In the 1910s, Shakhmatov developed a second hypothesis – that an original PVL version had been copied independently by two scribes. The author considers that the Laurentian version is a draft, while the Hypatian version is a clean copy of the official history of the Riurikids. One may well observe the process of inserting new data in the Hypatian text and editing the existing one as conveyed by the draft between years 1110 and 1118. The author proposes that the Pouchenie of Kniaz Vladimir Monomakh (which splits the text put under the year 1097 in Laurentian version) served as a source of data for some of the insertions in the Hypatian version. While the Pouchenie provided part of the data inserted or edited, the Hypatian version’s copyist checked the dating of events independently with sources, which have failed to survive to the present day. One piece of data found only therein concerns the relocation of Kniaz Aepa and other Cuman chieftains, his kin, and tribe, to Bulgaria. The Bulgarian Kniaz sent him a vessel of poisoned wine. Aepa and some of the other Cuman dignitaries died. This story exists among the events listed under the year 1117. The author juxtaposes both versions of the PVL and proposes that Aepa was a son of Kniaz Assen whose death is recorded under 1082. Sharukhan succeeded Kniaz Asen and was either his younger brother or a nephew. Following Sharukhan’s defeat in 1107, it was the marriage of an unnamed daughter of Aepa’s to Kniaz Vladimir Monomakh’s son George which sealed the peace between Kievan Rus and the Cuman confederation. A number of Rus campaigns against Cuman fortified towns in the 1110s, along with the Pecheneg-Cuman struggles for supremacy in the North Black Sea steppes, led to Aepa migrating to the Byzantine Theme of Bulgaria and Sharukhan’s son Atrak migrating to Georgia, in 1117 and 1118. To come to terms with invading Cumans, the Byzantine Katepan/Doux of Bulgaria – popularly known as the Bulgarian Archon in contemporary Byzantine literature or the Bulgarian Kniaz of the PVL – poisoned Aepa and other Cuman leaders. Next, the author hypothesises that he resettled the Cumans in the Theme of Bulgaria and registered them as a military-obliged populace. A number of place-names of villages and towns in present-day Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Greece might allow a retracing of such Cuman migrations. Assen, Peter, and Kaloian were successors to the Cuman Kniaz Aepa and continued discharging military duties until their revolt in the 1180s. Though they self-identified as Bulgarian, they inherited their high status and vast international network from their Cuman ancestors.

The three sigils of Emperor Basil II were issued in 1018 – 1025, and there in the territorial scope of Bulgarian (Ohrid) Archdiocese was defined. The texts of the sigils reached us in much later copies. In the second sigil the emperor explicitly stated thatthe. Archdiocesehad the same rangeas the one in the time of Tsar Petera nd Tsar Samuil. Both the analysis of the listed in the sigils Episcopal centers and a comparison with other written data and archaeological survey indicate a very serious discrepancy. This discrepancy can be explained only by the fact that the preserved texts of the sigils had undergone adjustments in a later period, note earlier than the end of the XI th century, and the before can not be used as a reliable historical source.

The book outlines the sources, content and evolution of the Bulgarian political thought between the adoption of the Christian faith (864) and the conquest of Eastern Bulgaria by Emperor John Tzimisces (971), when the Bulgarian Khanate is transformed into a Christian empire (“tsarstvo”) with a church organization virtually independent of Constantinople and Rome and with liturgy and literature in the vernacular Slavic (Old-Bulgarian) language. In the decades after the arrival of the disciples of the Slavic apostles Constantine-Cyril the Philosopher and Methodius in 886, active literary and educational work is being done in the capitals Pliska and Preslav, in Ohrid and in some of the larger monastic centers which is being patronized and supervised in person by Prince Boris I – Michael (852-889; + 907), Tsar Symeon I (893-927) and Tsar Peter (927-969). Thus Bulgaria becomes the only recently Christianized country to organize and conduct an extensive long-term cultural policy which becomes an embodiment of the ideas of the sovereignty, greatness, piety and wisdom of the Bulgarian rulers.
The comprehensive analysis of the corpus of Old-Bulgarian original, compilative and above all translated texts (1) reveals the lively interest of the scholars close to the ruler’s court in such issues as the theory of power and rule, the image of the ideal ruler and it’s biblical, Roman and Byzantine paradigms, the idea of the eschatological mission of the Roman Empire as an end link in the chain of successive world empires and (2) allows us an insight into the real essence of the complex process of transformation of the original model of the pagan Bulgarian state following the Christianization which was characterized by the selective adoption, adaptation and rejection of certain political ideas and concepts mainly in the framework of the country’s relations with Byzantium.
It should be emphasized that the Bulgarian political elite, involved in unrelenting confrontation and rivalry with the Empire, displays extraordinary sensitivity to any alteration in the tone of the diplomatic relations of Byzantium with the Bulgarians as well as to the subtle nuances of the ruling propaganda tendencies in Constantinople. Special significance for the development of the Bulgarian political thought has the ‘dynastic ideology’ promoted by Basil I, which becomes a structural pattern for Boris I – Michael and especially for his son Symeon who received excellent education in Constantinople exactly during the final years of the rule of this emperor. There are substantial grounds to claim that after his ascension to the throne Symeon I suits his personal and political behavior to the same ideas which are to be found in the imperial propaganda during the reign of Leo VI the Wise (e. g. Arethas from Caesarea praises him as an emanation of Plato’s ideal of emperor – philosopher who excels all previous rulers of the empire and gives to these under him more wisdom than a library of books).
It is in the context of this spirit of learned ‘encyclopedic’ (and at the same time strictly Orthodox) piety, permeating the court of Symeon I and embodied in the literary and translating work systematically patronized by the state, that the view of this ruler of himself, which took final shape c. 912-913, can be outlined, i.e. that he - as a new Adam (a notion implicitly contained in the dedicated to him by John Exarch Hexameron), a new Moses (as he openly calls himself in one of his letters to Patriarch Nicholas Mysticus), a new Ptolemy (according to the famous Eulogy from the Symeon’s miscellany), emperor-philosopher (who rose to power from the monastery) and a new Justinian (the oldest translation of Agapetus’ Expositio capitum admonitorium was designed to create a suitable image for the newly-proclaimed Bulgarian tsar) – is elected by God to ascend the Byzantine throne in order to revive and renew the former magnificence and might of the Christian Roman Empire.
It deserves mention that in the ages to follow the Russian ideologists, including the authors of the concept Moscow – Third Rome, look on Byzanium and its ideological legacy primarily through the eyes of the Old-Bulgarian writers and translators. So, it can be claimed that the foundations of the ideological model of the Muscovite tsardom are laid in Bulgaria, which establishes itself as the first empire in the Slavic world and bequeaths to the future generations of Slavic scholars its model of selective ‘reading’ and ‘translation’ of the Byzantine tradition. In this respect, the political relations and cultural communication between Byzantium and Bulgaria in 9-10 c. have a really far-reaching significance, i.e. due to them that some lasting features of the Orthodox Slavic world evolve which in turn influence the development of European history up until the present day.

The Law for judging the people is one of the earliest Slavonic juridical texts. Authorship, time and place of its origin have been discussed for many years. While striving to relate the regarded juridical text with the situation of Great Moravia, The First Bulgarian state, or the ninth century Struma valley, scholars have focused on large variety of political, cultural, religious peculiarities and linguistic data. The results of these researches are indisputable. At present it can be summarized that the Law for judging the people was most probably a part of the literary activities of St. Methodius (and / or close associates) in Great Moravia and was spread among the Orthodox Slavs form the late ninth century onwards. In new scholarly efforts concerning the development of medieval Bulgaria the above mentioned juridical text has still a lot to offer. Within the vast frameworks of such research field the problem of slavery in the tenth century Bulgarian society is more than a possible topic to be elaborated.

We report the presence of significant Central Asian ancestry in both contemporary Bulgarians and in early medieval population from SMC (Saltovo Mayaky Culture). The existence of Chalcolithic Iran (Hajj Fruz) and Wusun related ancestral component in contemporary Bulgarians comes as a surprise and sheds light on both migration route and ethnic origins of ProtoBulgarians. We interpret these results as an evidence for a Central Asian connection for the tribes, constituting the population of SMC and Kubrats Old Great Bulgaria in Pontic steppe from 6th and 7th century AD. We identify Central Asian Wusun tribes as carriers of this component on the base from the results from f3 and f4 statistics. We suggest that Wusun related tribes must have played role (or might have even been the backbone) in what became known as the Hunnic migration to Europe during 3rd 5th century AD. Same population must have taken part in the formation of the SMC (Saltovo Mayaki Culture) and Great Old Bulgarian during 6th 9th century AD in Pontic Caspian steppe. We also explore the genomic origins of Thracians and their relations to contemporary Europeans. We conclude that contemporary Bulgarians do not harbor Thracian-specific ancestry, since ancient Thracian samples share more SNPs with contemporary Greeks and even contemporary Icelanders than with contemporary Bulgarians