Overview
J1-ZS3248 is a downstream lineage within the Arabian-rooted J1-L147.1 macrocluster and is tied to pastoralist populations operating across northern Arabia, the Syrian desert belt and parts of the Jordanian steppe. Its early formation aligns with mid Holocene expansions of herding communities and the strengthening of desert–upland seasonal mobility systems.
Bronze and Iron Age demographic developments contributed to the internal structuring of ZS3248, with downstream clades distributed across desert margin regions and early tribal networks. While some subbranches may have been absorbed into early Arab tribal confederations, deeper elements of the lineage reflect pre-Arab pastoralist populations that dominated the northern Arabian frontier.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, southern Syria, Iraq; rare in the Levant and Hijaz.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic Levantine remains contain J1 variation consistent with ancestral ZS3248.
- Bronze Age northern Arabia individuals show markers tied to the clade's upstream phases.
- Iron Age Syrian interior burials display downstream patterns.
- Classical desert communities show retention of microbranch continuity.
- Early Arabian tribal expansions likely carried derivative subclades.
Phylogeny & subclades
A northern Arabian and Syrian desert lineage under J1-L147.1 with downstream branches tied to desert mobility systems.
- ZS3248*
- Arabian microbranches
- Syrian desert derivatives
Notes & context
ZS3248 is valuable for reconstructing pastoralist population structure in the northern Arabian–Syrian desert corridor.
References & external links