Overview
J1-ZS2843 is a downstream lineage of the large J1-L147.1 Arabian-centered radiation and is strongly associated with pastoral populations occupying the northern Arabian desert margin, Jordan and the Syrian interior. Its early formation corresponds to the development of Holocene pastoral mobility systems that linked oasis-based settlements, upland grazing zones and proto-caravan routes extending across northern Arabia.
The downstream diversification of ZS2843 appears to correspond primarily to the Bronze and Iron Age tribal expansions that shaped the demographic history of northern Arabia and the Levant. Historical movements of early Arab tribal confederations, as well as earlier pre-Arab populations of the desert margin, contributed to the spread of this lineage, although its strongest persistence remained within northern Arabian pastoral communities.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq; sporadic presence in the Levant; rare in the Arabian Peninsula and Mesopotamia.
Ancient DNA
- Bronze Age northern Arabian individuals show upstream J1-P58 signals related to ancestral ZS2843.
- Chalcolithic Levantine individuals carry J1 lineages compatible with early phases of this clade.
- Iron Age Levantine burials display downstream signatures aligned with ZS2843.
- Classical period desert communities exhibit traces of its derived branches.
- Northern Arabian tribal expansions likely carried later downstream subclades.
Phylogeny & subclades
A northern Arabian–Levantine branch under the J1-L147.1 macrostructure with several tribal and pastoral microbranches.
- ZS2843*
- north Arabian branches
- Syrian desert derivatives
Notes & context
A key clade for tracing Bronze and Iron Age pastoralist networks across northern Arabia and the Levant.
References & external links