Todays Bulgarians are slavized Thracians by origin);
Alistair Sim
>From Coon's Book Races of Europe;
Bulgaria
Bulgaria
East of the Illyrians and north of the Macedonians lived, in classical
times, the Thracians. Their territory reached beyond the Danube on the
north to the border of Scythian country, and on the east to the Black
Sea. In the period of their greatest power, between 450 and 300 B.C.,
they were a numerous and important people; Herodotus called them the
most numerous west of India. The southern Thracians were more or less
Hellenized culturally, the northern ones in later times were Romanized,
and were also influenced by the settkment of Goths among them. The
invasions of the South Slavs, however, put an end to what remained of
their ethnic identity.
The Thracians are introduced here, at this late date, because they were
not discussed in Chapter VI, along with the other
Indo-European-speaking peoples of the Iron Age. The reason for this
omission is that no skeletal material worthy of mention has been
described which can be associated with them. A single skull which was
probably Thracian, however, was dolichocephalic and leptorrhine. 132
Classical descriptions of Thracians make them tall, powerful, and
apparently fair. As such they fit into the general scheme of the Iron
Age Indo-European-speaking peoples.
Bulgaria was once Thracian country; a few centuries after its
Romanization, it was submerged by a Slavic invasion, the advance guard
of the movement which brought Slavic speech into Serbia. This Slavic
invasion, which resulted in a permanent settlement of the country, was
followed by a further invasion of still heathen Ugrian tribes under
Turkish leadership, similar to the movement which brought the ancestors
of the Magyars to Hungary. The subsequent history of Bulgaria was the
opposite to that of Hungary; the Bulgars, who had left their eastern
Russian home before the rise of the Bolgar Empire, kept their Ugrian
name, but gave up their language, in favor of the speech of their
Slavic predecessors. Whereas the Magyars became Catholics, the Bulgars
adopted Orthodox Christianity The next invaders of Bulgaria of
importance were the Ottoman Turks, who took over the fertile Danubian
farm lands, and settled large colonies of Asiatic Turks on them.
Sporadic invasions of Tatars from South Russia mingled themselves with
this Turkish body. At the time of the Russian conquest of the Caucasus,
many Moslem Cherkesses fled to Bulgaria to avoid submission to
Christians.
Since the war, many of the Turkish peasants have left Bulgaria, and
many of the Cherkesses as well. There are still islands of these people
throughout the country, but especially in the eastern lowlands, and
there are minor colonies of Greeks, of Tatars, and of Rumanians. To the
west, the Bulgarians occupy the greater part of Yugoslavian Macedonia,
and border in this neighborhood on the Albanians. To the south, they
extend to the head of the Aegean, where their settlements are
interspersed with those of Turks and Greeks. Most of the Bulgarians are
still Orthodox Christians, but a large minority, especially in
Macedonia, is Moslem.
The stature of the Bulgarians varies regionally from 166 cm. to 168
cm.; 133 the tallest are found in Macedonia, and also in the very
northeastern part of Bulgaria. There is a strong social segregation on
the basis of stature; students at the Sofia Military Academy had, in
1906, a mean stature of 171.5 cm.; 134 other socially selected samples
rise to 170 cm. The Bulgar colonists who live in the Crimea have a mean
of 169 cm., those in the Rumanian Dobruja, 167 cm. The mean cephalic
index of over 5000 Bulgarian soldiers is 79.6; this varies within the
kingdom of Bulgaria from 80.8 in the north, to 79.9 in the southwest,
and 78.2 in the south. Christian Bulgars of Macedonia have a mean of
83.3, in the region of Monastir this rises to 85; Moslem Bulgars are
less brachycephalic, with a mean of 80.5, while in the neighborhood of
Salonika small local samples of Bulgars are actually dolichocephalic,
with a mean of 76.4, and in the neighborhood of Adrianople in Turkish
Thrace, the mean is only 78.3. Bulgarian émigrés in the Crimea have a
mean of 78.7.
Thus within the Bulgarian people there is a strong tendency toward
dolichocephaly, strong enough to impress mesocephaly upon the nation as
a whole. The strongest expression of this tendency is found in the
southern part of the kingdom, and beyond Bulgarian territory proper.
True brachycephals are found only among the Macedonian Bulgars who live
in close contact with Albanians.
Explanation:
(Type he is talking about is Pondids also called eastern Meds and
Atlanto-Mediterraneans, as most of Thracians were type, which has
mainly dolichocephaly (state of being facially 'longheaded' such as
Mediterraneans or simply Meds and Nordics). Dolichocephaly is not a
norm for neither Turkics (Turanid type), Slavs (neodanubians) or
Ugroginns (Lagodans) who are mainly facially 'wideheaded' or
brahicephalic). The Mediterranean element is strongest (clearly
Thracian element which is related to Aegean Greeks) in southern
Bulgaria which is the same region where helenistic Thracians resided.
Even genetically speaking southern Bulgaria is Greek (southern
Thracians were hellenistic)
Text continues:
The Bulgarians of the kingdom have heads of moderate size, with a mean
length of about 189 mm. and a breadth of 150 mm.; they are comparable
in this respect to the longer-headed Greeks. Their faces, however, are
narrower than those of most Balkan peoples; the minimum frontal mean is
105 mm., the bizygomatic 139 mm., and the bigonial 108 mm. As with the
Greeks, the jaw is wider than the forehead, but both widths are much
narrower than with the latter. The face height, 121 mm., is moderate,
the facial index, 87, mesoprosopic. On the other hand the upper facial
index, 55, is relatively high. The ratio between the two facial indices
assumes a Mediterranean position. The nasal diameters, 55 mm. by 36
mm., yield a moderately leptorrhine index, 65.
Explanation:
Clearly mainly Mediterranean people reside in Bulgaria and the
comparison is consistent towards Greeks (where Mediterranean element is
also very strong).
Text:
So far, the metrical position of the main group of Bulgarians is that
of a moderately tall-statured Mediterranean group, with the addition of
some brachycephalizing agent in a minor numerical position. The
pigmentation of the Bulgars, while lighter than that of the Greeks, is
predominantly dark. About 25 per cent have pure dark eyes, about 15 per
cent light and light-mixed; the remaining majority are dark or evenly
mixed. The head hair is dark brown or very dark reddish brown in almost
the entire group; even among children, definitely blond combinations of
hair, eye, and skin color do not exceed 10 per cent of the whole. Among
adults light head hair is rare. The beard, however, shows the same
tendency to disproportionate lightness found among Albanians,
Montenegrins, and Cretans, but not among Greeks; the brunet colors
found in about 90 per cent of the head hair occurs in only 50 per cent
of the beards. Medium and light brown beards account for most of the
rest. There is a notable absence of ash-blondism in this group.
Explanation:
First comparison with Greeks again (comparison always with closest
element) and second comparison with Albanians, Montenegrins, and
Cretans (regions where either hellenistic Illyrians resided or Crete
where Dorian Greek settled who came from NW Greece).
Text:
Most of the Bulgars have straight nasal profiles; concave forms are
found principally in the northwest, adjoining Serbian territory, where
they amount to 12 per cent. Convexity is rare among all Bulgarians, but
least so in Macedonia. The snubbed tip so characteristic of northern
and eastern Slavs is by no means unknown among them, but is in the
minority.
Text:
The Bulgarians are a composite people, with the following racial
elements easily discernible:
(a) a medium to tall-statured Atlanto-Mediterranean;
(b) a partially blond Neo-Danubian, of typical snub-nosed form;
(c) a Nordic;
(d) a Dinaric, with the usual Alpine corollary;
(e) a brachycephalic central Asiatic Turkish or Tatar form.
The basic element is the Atlanto-Mediterranean, which probably goes
back to the Neolithic; the Neo-Danubian is probably of both Slavic and
Ugrian introduction, although some of it may be older; the Nordic may
be of several origins, including Thracian; the Dinaric is simply the
result of Bulgarian admixture with local elements in Macedonia; the
Turkic is found mostly in eastern Bulgaria, and then among townsmen and
shepherds rather than among agriculturalists. Of these varied elements,
the first two are the most important, and the first more than the
second. The presence of a strongly entrenched Atlanto-Mediterranean
population of Neolithic date in all of the lowland Balkans south and
east of the Iron Gate is becoming increasingly evident. In Bulgaria it
is geographically most concentrated along the southern ethnic
periphery, and among Bulgarian colonies abroad, as in the Crimea.
Explanation:
Above part is the most important part of the text. It clearly states
that the major population is Atlanto-Mediterraneans (descendents of
hellenistic Thracians, centered in southern Bulgaria, both then and
now). Neodanubian is slavic. Alpine is associated with Dorian Greeks
(as is to lesser extent Dinaric) and also later on Celts. Dinaric is
associated with mainly Illyrians. Turanids (a brachycephalic central
Asiatic Turkish or Tatar form.) is associated with original Turkic
Bulgars (N.E. Bulgaria). Nordic is most likely of Nordic origin
(Germanic invasion impact) (Coon is pronordicist, the book is written
in 1939, and states that original Greeks (who are the same as todays
Greeks), Illyrians and Thracians were all Nordics which is the only
inaccurate part. Truth is that in 13 cen. Bc there was a Nordic
movement of Hollstat type, pure Nordics, that originated from todays
Sweden in Balkans, other then that is specualation). Conclusion is that
people in hellenistic Thrace, byzantine preslavic Thrace and afterwards
are mainly of the same type.
_____________
Racial Classification partly based on Coons book.
Bulgaria = 60% East Mediterranean ( mainly hellenistic Thracians ), 15%
Alpine ( UP, Celtic impact? ) , 15% Dinaric , 5% Turanid ( NW Bulgaria,
remains of semioriental Turkic Bulgars ), 5% Nordish ( Germanic
invasion impact ) = 60% Med. / 15% Dinarik / 15% UP / 5% T / 5% N
Note 1: I believe that Coon's classification for Bulgaria would be
something like the numbers bellow;
- East Mediterranean 60% (Thracians)
- Neodanubian 20% (Slavs)
- Dinaric 10% (Illyrians)
- Nordic 5% (Scandinavians)
- Turanid 5% (Turkic Bulgars)
Note 2: Considering there is a Alpine presence in Bulgaria and that
some antropologists group them in the same category (both brahicephals
of similar stature and similar facial configuration) I would say that
Slavic Neodanubians cannt be more then 10% if even that much.