Българите в Южна Италия през Средновековието (VI–XI век)
G. DIMOV. Bulgarians in Southern Italy during the Middle Ages (6th – 11th C)

Summary/Abstract: Southern Italy in the Early and High Middle Ages has been rightfully described as a region open to a wide range of external, foreign influences. Beside the Langobards, Greeks and Normans, sources show the presence of Jews, Arabs, Armenians and Slavs. Therefore, it is hardly surprising to also find the inhabitants of the steppes between the Dniester and Lower Volga among them. Those were the Bulgarians, who came from their diaspora in the East. Between them, they preserved the name of Alceko – the leader of Bulgars who settled in the villages of Sepino, Boiano and Isernia in the Matese mountains of Central and Southern Italy. Alceko was the youngest of Khan Kubrat’s sons, and the one to drift away the most from Old Great Bulgaria after its fall to the Avar Khaganate. In this article we reveal the historical evidence about these people. They are represented by human graves of steppe-nomadic character, as well as horse burials datable to the second half of the 8th century which attest to the presence of the Bulgars in the Molise and Campania regions. In addition, the Langobard historian Paul the Deacon recorded that the descendants of these Bulgars still spoke their language, as well as Latin.

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