IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir (18/9/2008) Για παραπομπή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir , "Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) ", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10659> Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) Περίληψη : Bulgars, Turkic-Bulgars, Pra-Bulgarians, also Proto-Bulgarians, a people of the steppe swept by the Huns in the course of their great movement from Central Asia to Europe after the 2nd c. AD. The works of generations of historians, linguists, archaeologists and anthropologists mostly from Hungary, Russia, and Bulgaria have proven the multiethnic character of the Bulgars, which was the result of the interaction of cultures of a great number of tribes on the vast territory between the Azov Sea and Lombardy in the 5th-7th c. Χρονολόγηση 2nd ‑7th c. AD Γεωγραφικός εντοπισμός Central Asia, Eastern, Southeastern and Central Europe 1. The Bulgars from Asia to Europe: the literary evidence The question about the origin of the Bulgars arose already with the first references to them in contemporary written sources.1 The earliest evidence for the Proto‑Bulgars can be found in the Chinese sources. According to them, around 2nd millennium B. C. some Turkic tribes established themselves in the Altai Mountains and precisely, in the western and northwestern area of the sources of the river Ob‑Irtysh. The Chinese sources refer to that tribal union as Tingling (or Dinlin) and some scholars intend to identify it with the Ogour (i.e. Turkic ‑Bulgar) tribes.2 While the data for the earliest, so‑called “Asian” period of the history of the Bulgars is still hypothetical, the evidence provided by the Greek and Latin sources for the period of the 4 th‑7th c. is considered much more reliable. It is generally accepted that the earliest reference to the Bulgars in that group of sources is the Anonymous Roman Chronograph of AD 354. There, in the list of the people in the Near and Middle East the Bulgars ( vulgares) are mentioned last as descendants of Ziezi, the son of Shem ( Zieziexquovulgares).3 The relevance of the reference in the Chronogrpahy is further confirmed by Moses of Choren in his “History of Armenia” (5th c.) in which he narrates about two waves of emigration of the Bulgars, the first to Armenia and the second to North Caucasus. 4 Despite some doubts in the actual presence of the Bulgars in those regions, 5 some hydronyms prove the settlement of the Bulgars there: for instance, a river in South Azerbaijan which runs through the Mugan steppe and flows into the lake of Mahmud‑chala is called Bolgaru‑chaj (the Bulgar river).6 The analysis of the literary sources of the 4 th ‑7th c. and the mapping of the ethnonyms that appeared in them suggest that by that time an ethnic group called “Bulgars” (Bulgar, Bulkar) inhabited the area of the East European steppes except for the region of the Lower Volga.7 In light of the contemporary historical writing, the Bulgars and their related tribes appeared as a successor of the political legacy of the Huns and thus, they had been often referred as to “Huns” or the name of the Huns was added to those of the Bulgar tribes: for instance, Huns ‑Scythians, Scyhtians‑Bulgars, Huns‑Koutrigours, Huns‑Onogours, Huns‑Bulgars, etc., while in some of these cases the words ἢτοι (mean. ʺthat isʺ) or καλούμενοι (mean. ʺalso calledʺ)are used to served to conjoin the ethnic names. 8 2. The Bulgars from Asia to Europe: the archaeological evidence Δημιουργήθηκε στις 27/9/2021 Σελίδα 1/7 IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir (18/9/2008) Για παραπομπή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir , "Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) ", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10659> Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) In light of the archaeological evidence the migration of the Huns from the plateau of Ordos (Inner Mongolia) near the Great Chinese Wall to Europe took a long period of time and covered a vast territory. Their defeat in the war against Chine in the 2nd c. was in fact the strongest push in that process. According to the finds of graves and bronze cauldrons, typical for the Huns, now is clear that they followed two main routes in their migration to the West. The north route followed the northern foots of the Altai Mountains to the basin of the Kama river and the left bank of the Volga. The south route went by the northern shores of the Aral and Caspian Sea through Central and East Kazakhstan and the steppes south of Ural. Apparently, there was no a homogenous ethnic group on the way of the Huns to the West that might be considered a single predecessor of the Bulgarians as they appeared in the 5 th‑7th c. 3. The appearance of the Bulgars in the Balkans At the end of the 4th c. and the beginning of the 5th c. Huns reached Central Europe and thus, some of the Bulgar tribes who followed that movement settled in Pannonia and the plains to around the Carpathians. The collapse of the Hunnic Empire of Attila gave a chance to the Bulgars to get better recognized by the contemporary historians. One of their most outrageous acts of that time, recorded later by Paul the Deacon (AD 720 ‑790), was the brutal defeat of the Langobards of king Agelmund in the north foots of the Carpathians. 9 The earliest reference to the appearance of the Bulgars in the Balkans dates to the time of the emperor Zeno (re. 474‑ 491) who made an alliance with them against the Goths in AD 480.10 From this moment on the Bulgars appeared in the Byzantines sources either as an ally, or as invaders devastating the Balkan territories of the Byzantine Empire (AD 493, 499, 502 г).11 The Byzantine chroniclers John Malalas, Procopius, Theophanes the Confessor recorded frequent raids of the Bulgarians in Illyricum (i. e. the Western Balkans) and Thrace. 12 After AD 550 while describing the raids of the Bulgars south of the Danube their name in the sources was gradually replaced by those of the Koutrigours and Outigours.13 4. The territories of the Bulgarian tribes: the 6th c. According to Zacharias Rhetor, in the 6th c. the Bulgars lived together with the Alans beyond the Caspian Gates known also as Derbent (a narrow region at the southeast corner of the Caspian Sea). They were pagans with their own language, lived in jurts and made their living out of hunting and war. 14 5. The territories of the Bulgarian tribes: the 7th c. The name of (Old) Great Bulgaria (Παλαιά Μεγάλη Βουλγαρία) appeared in the sources for the first time in the 7 th c. and it refers to the territories at the Lower Kuban to the river Dnieper to the west. 15 Its alternative name employed in the sources, Onoguria/Onoghuria, sheds some light on the origin of the people living there by that time under Khan Kubrat (re. 632‑680). More precisely, Onoguria/Onoghuria is apparently related to the composite ethnonym Onogoundours (Ounogoundours)‑Bulgars the first part of which reproduces the tribe name of Onogours, who settled in the East European steppes together with Saragours and Ougors already in AD 463. 16 Initially they settled in the area of the Caspian Gates where they became known under the name of Hailandours. 17 The Ravenna Cosmography (ca. 7th c.) informs that Onoghoria is situated in the area of the Black Sea and the Azov Sea, where the local people Δημιουργήθηκε στις 27/9/2021 Σελίδα 2/7 IΔΡΥΜA ΜΕΙΖΟΝΟΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΣΜΟΥ Συγγραφή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir (18/9/2008) Για παραπομπή : Popkonstantinov Kazimir , "Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) ", 2008, Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Μείζονος Ελληνισμού, Εύξεινος Πόντος URL: <http://www.ehw.gr/l.aspx?id=10659> Bulgars (Proto-Bulgarians) lived by fishing of a rich variety of fishes. 18 The Armenian geographer Anania Shirakatsi (7th c.) places the Bulgars to the north of Sarmathia and mentions four double tribe names composed according to the names of the rivers where the Bulgars lived or came from: Kupi ‑Bulgar, Duchi‑Bulkar, Oghondor (Olhontor)‑blkar, Chdar‑Bolkar.19 The first two tribe names sound very closely to the names of the rivers of Kuban (Kufis) and Dnieper (Kucho). The third tribe name can be identified with the Onogours ‑Bulgars who lived to the east of the Azov Sea known also as Ounogoundours. The fourth tribe noted by Anania Shirakatsi can be placed in the area of the river Don or Severski Donets. 20 As can be seen, the tradition each tribe to have its own name yet bonded to the common tribe name of the Bulgars (Bulgar, Bolkar, Blkar) was still followed by the 7 th c.21 Such a tradition indicates a strong relationship between the various tribes that identify themselves with the well‑known ethnonym of the Bulgarians. 6. The Bulgars in Italy In AD 569 the Langobard king Alboin and his multiethnic army of Langobards, Gepids and Pannonian Bulgars conquered the greatest part of North Italy (Lombardy, Etruria, and Liguria). As a result a lot of new settlements including those of the Bulgars appeared on that territory. 22 That was the beginning of the Bulgarian resettlement in Italy that left traces in the toponyms, hydronyms, anthroponyms and eponyms with the stem of Bulgari that survived not only in the historical sources, but also in now days. 23 7. Bulgars and Avars A new movement of the peoples in Southeastern and Central Europe had been recorded in the second half of the 6 th c. The main factor was the appearance of the Avars the homeland of whose is generally localized in Central Asia.