Overview
J1-FGC9531 is a downstream component of the highland-centered J1-Z1828 complex and formed among early agro-pastoral populations of the Armenian Highlands, eastern Anatolia and the northern Zagros. These groups employed transhumant herding systems shaped by mountainous terrain, early metallurgy and fortified upland settlements. They were part of the broader cultural engine that contributed to the emergence and spread of the Kura-Araxes cultural horizon. Throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, FGC9531-bearing populations remained localized within rugged upland environments, where geographic isolation encouraged the formation of tightly grouped microclades. Archaeogenetic evidence shows enduring continuity between ancestral FGC9531 populations and later highland communities from the Iron Age through the medieval period.