site.btaResearch Finds Bulgarians, Romanians and Croats Have Strongest Slavic Genes in Balkans

Bulgarians, Romanians and Croats have the highest percentage of Slavic genes in the Balkans - around 50% to 60%, while Greeks have the lowest percentage of Slavic genes - 4% to 20%, according to DNA research from Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Albania and Greece, the Serbian Tanjug reported.

According to a research on the genetic history of the Balkans in different eras, carried out jointly by scientists from Serbia, Spain and the US, about 50% to 60% of the genes of Bulgarians, Romanians and Croats are of Slavic origin. Towards Greece, the percentage drops to 4% in the interior and 20% on the islands.

By analyzing ancient DNA from more than 30 locations, the study reflects genetic population changes and migration in the Balkans over two millennia, the paper says. DNA from 140 skeletons from the 1st to 10th centuries was used, along with DNA from the modern populations of the respective countries. The aim of the study is to show the continuity of genes from the modern inhabitants of the Balkan countries and the "old Balkan" population since the Bronze Age.

The study confirms that there was a mass migration of Slavs in the 6th and 7th centuries that left "deep genetic traces on the Balkan peoples".