Editing Bulgarians (section)

==Genetic origins==
{{Main|Genetic studies on Bulgarians}}
[[File:A genetic atlas of human admixture history - East Europe II and Mediterranean.png|thumb|upright=2.25|Historical contribution of donor source groups in European peoples according to Hellenthal et al., (2014). Polish is selected to represent Slavic-speaking donor groups from the Middle Ages that are estimated to make up 97% of the ancestry in Belarusians, 80% in Russians, 55% in Bulgarians, 54% in Hungarians, 48% in Romanians, 46% in Chuvash and 30% in Greeks.<ref>{{cite web |work=A genetic atlas of human admixture history |title=Companion website for "A genetic atlas of human admixture history", Hellenthal et al, Science (2014) |url=http://admixturemap.paintmychromosomes.com/}}<br />
{{cite journal |last1=Hellenthal |first1=Garrett |last2=Busby |first2=George B.J. |last3=Band |first3=Gavin |last4=Wilson |first4=James F. |last5=Capelli |first5=Cristian |last6=Falush |first6=Daniel |last7=Myers |first7=Simon |title=A Genetic Atlas of Human Admixture History |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |date=14 February 2014 |volume=343 |issue=6172 |pages=747–751 |doi=10.1126/science.1243518 |pmid=24531965 |pmc=4209567 |issn=0036-8075|bibcode=2014Sci...343..747H }}<br /> 
{{cite journal |title=Supplementary Material for "A genetic atlas of human admixture history" |journal = Science|volume = 343|issue = 6172|pages=747–751 |quote=S7.6 "East Europe": The difference between the 'East Europe I' and 'East Europe II' analyses is that the latter analysis included the Polish as a potential donor population. The Polish were included in this analysis to reflect a Slavic language speaking source group." "We speculate that the second event seen in our six Eastern Europe populations between northern European and southern European ancestral sources may correspond to the expansion of Slavic language speaking groups (commonly referred to as the Slavic expansion) across this region at a similar time, perhaps related to displacement caused by the Eurasian steppe invaders (38; 58). Under this scenario, the northerly source in the second event might represent DNA from Slavic-speaking migrants (sampled Slavic-speaking groups are excluded from being donors in the EastEurope I analysis). To test consistency with this, we repainted these populations adding the Polish as a single Slavic-speaking donor group (“East Europe II” analysis; see Note S7.6) and, in doing so, they largely replaced the original North European component (Figure S21), although we note that two nearby populations, Belarus and Lithuania, are equally often inferred as sources in our original analysis (Table S12). Outside these six populations, an admixture event at the same time (910CE, 95% CI:720-1140CE) is seen in the southerly neighboring Greeks, between sources represented by multiple neighboring Mediterranean peoples (63%) and the Polish (37%), suggesting a strong and early impact of the Slavic expansions in Greece, a subject of recent debate (37). These shared signals we find across East European groups could explain a recent observation of an excess of IBD sharing among similar groups, including Greece, that was dated to a wide range between 1,000 and 2,000 years ago (37)|pmc = 4209567|year = 2014|last1 = Hellenthal|first1 = G.|last2 = Busby|first2 = G. B.|last3 = Band|first3 = G.|last4 = Wilson|first4 = J. F.|last5 = Capelli|first5 = C.|last6 = Falush|first6 = D.|last7 = Myers|first7 = S.|pmid = 24531965|doi = 10.1126/science.1243518 |bibcode = 2014Sci...343..747H}}</ref>]]
According to a triple analysis – [[autosome|autosomal]], [[mitochondrial]] and [[Y-DNA|paternal]] — of available data from large-scale studies on [[Balts|Balto]]-[[Slavs]] and their proximal populations, the whole genome [[Single nucleotide polymorphism|SNP]] data situates Bulgarians in a cluster with [[Romanians]], [[Macedonians (ethnic group)|Macedonians]] and [[Gagauzes]], and they are at similar proximity to [[Serbs]] and [[Montenegrins]].<ref name=pmid26332464/>

Bulgarians, like most Europeans, largely descend from three distinct lineages:<ref name="Indo-European"/> Mesolithic [[hunter-gatherer]]s, descended from populations associated with the Paleolithic [[Epigravettian]] culture;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Posth |first1=C. |last2=Yu |first2=H. |last3=Ghalichi |first3=A. |title=Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |date=2023 |volume=615 |issue=2 March 2023 |pages=117–126 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-05726-0 |pmid=36859578 |pmc=9977688 |bibcode=2023Natur.615..117P }}</ref> Neolithic [[Early European Farmers]] who migrated from Anatolia during the [[Neolithic Revolution]] 9,000 years ago;<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population |journal=Science |date=21 February 2017 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population |access-date=22 April 2023 |archive-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925154535/https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Yamnaya culture|Yamnaya]] [[Western Steppe Herders|Steppe herders]] who expanded into Europe from the [[Pontic steppe]] in the context of [[Indo-European migrations]] 5,000 years ago.<ref name="Indo-European">{{Cite journal|last1=Haak |first1=Wolfgang |last2=Lazaridis |first2=Iosif |last3=Patterson |first3=Nick |last4=Rohland |first4=Nadin |last5=Mallick |first5=Swapan |last6=Llamas |first6=Bastien |last7=Brandt |first7=Guido |last8=Nordenfelt |first8=Susanne |last9=Harney |first9=Eadaoin |last10=Stewardson |first10=Kristin |last11=Fu |first11=Qiaomei |date=11 June 2015 |title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]] |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=207–211 |doi=10.1038/nature14317 |issn=0028-0836 |pmc=5048219 |pmid=25731166 |bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H |arxiv=1502.02783}}</ref>