Overview
J1-ZS3017 is a downstream lineage of the broad Arabian-rooted J1-L147.1 radiation and is tied to pastoral populations occupying northern Arabia, the Jordanian steppe and the interior of Syria. Its early formation corresponds to Holocene shifts in pastoral systems, with groups increasingly using long-range seasonal movements between desert oases, upland grazing zones and emerging proto-urban centers along the Levantine corridor.
Downstream diversification during the Bronze and Iron Ages reflects the expansion and consolidation of tribal pastoral societies in northern Arabia and southern Syria. The lineage likely contributed to the demographic background of pre-Arab and early Arab populations, including those associated with early caravan networks and tribal clusters forming across the northern desert frontier.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, southern Syria, Iraq; rare occurrences in the Levant and central Arabia.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic Levantine groups show J1 lineages compatible with upstream ZS3017.
- Bronze Age northern Arabian samples support ancestral nodes linked to the clade.
- Iron Age Syrian interior sites exhibit downstream forms of ZS3017.
- Classical desert zone communities display continuity with derivative branches.
- Early pastoral tribal expansions likely spread downstream microclades.
Phylogeny & subclades
A northern Arabian and Syrian desert lineage under J1-L147.1 with multiple microbranches tied to pastoral mobility patterns.
- ZS3017*
- northern Arabian microbranches
- Syrian desert derivations
Notes & context
ZS3017 is a significant component of early pastoralist structuring across the northern Arabian–Syrian corridor.
References & external links