Overview
J1-FGC8302 is a downstream highland lineage under the J1-Z1828 branch with a demographic concentration in the South Caucasus, eastern Anatolia and the northern Zagros. Its earliest development appears linked with middle Holocene mountain agro-pastoral groups occupying high-altitude valleys and strategically located upland corridors. These populations were active participants in early metallurgical networks, obsidian trade routes and the cultural interactions that gave rise to the Kura-Araxes culture. Throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, FGC8302 bearing groups maintained a strong upland demographic profile shaped by environmental isolation, seasonal transhumance and tribal-level societal organization. Downstream phylogenetic segmentation shows that several subbranches remained restricted to narrow geographic ecologies, including Armenian highlands and Georgian uplands.