Overview
J1-Y4897 is a downstream branch of the expansive Arabian-centered J1-P58 lineage, formed during the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age transition among pastoral communities occupying the northern Arabian plateau and the southern Levant. These populations practiced mobile herding strategies reliant on seasonal grazing cycles, desert wells and oasis-linked subsistence, which facilitated integration into early caravan and trade networks that eventually shaped the prehistoric economic landscape of the region. By the Bronze and Iron Ages, Y4897-bearing groups contributed to the tribal frameworks emerging in northern Arabia and the Hejaz, participating in the broader demographic processes that underpinned early Semitic-speaking tribal coalitions. Downstream phylogenetic signals show distinct founder effects linked to local clan expansions, particularly in regions such as Wadi Sirhan, southern Jordan and northern Hejaz. Later waves of migration during the early Islamic period carried certain subbranches into Iraq and the Gulf.