Two Gothic-associated communities in ancient Bulgaria shared cultural traditions—but their DNA tells different ancestry stories.

Researchers studied 37 people from Aquae Calidae near Burgas and an inland site near Shumen, with burial horizons spanning roughly AD 320–489. These are archaeological associations, not identities diagnosed from DNA.

The inland community has stronger links to ancient groups north of the Black Sea. One accepted model estimates 65.2% Chernyakhov-related and 34.8% Late Antique Balkan ancestry. Chernyakhov describes a diverse archaeological horizon, not a single biological people.

On the coast, both main subgroups also require ancestry related to Anatolia or the Marmara region, in present-day Turkey. Northern ancestry alone cannot explain them. The reference sites are genetic proxies, not proven hometowns.

The timing is striking: a pooled analysis dates north–south mixing to about 12.4 generations before burial. Its calendar estimate falls in the first century AD, with a wide 95% interval from 85 BC to AD 183. That dates ancestry mixing—not arrival in Bulgaria or an exact migration route.

Diversity also exists within cemeteries. One coastal individual shows unusually strong Levant-related affinity. Close relatives occur within the sites, but none are confirmed between them in the sampled data.

The picture is of migration, mixing and community formation. Shared Gothic-associated customs could connect people with different ancestry histories. The study does not establish ancestry percentages for modern Bulgarians.

📚 Source: Stamov et al. (2026), Frontiers in Genetics
Paleogenomic evidence for genetic heterogeneity and prior admixture in Gothic-associated communities of late antique Bulgaria

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