Overview
J1-ZS3604 is a downstream branch within the Arabian-rooted J1-L147.1 macrocluster and reflects demographic processes centered on northern Arabia and the Syro-Arabian steppe. Its formation corresponds to the mid Holocene emergence of mobile pastoralist groups adjusting to increasingly arid ecological conditions across the northern Arabian desert and adjacent upland regions.
During the Bronze and Iron Ages, ZS3604-bearing populations were part of larger tribal confederations inhabiting desert margins and seasonal grazing corridors. Some late branches may have integrated into early Arab tribal structures, but ancestral layers reflect pre-Arab pastoral communities with long-term continuity. Classical desert settlements and oasis systems contributed to additional downstream diversification.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, southern Syria, Iraq; rare instances in Hijaz and the broader Levant.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic and early Bronze Age Levantine remains show upstream J1 markers compatible with ancestral ZS3604.
- Northern Arabian Bronze Age individuals contain related upstream nodes.
- Iron Age desert settlements in Syria preserve downstream signatures.
- Classical oasis communities show lineage continuity.
- Early Arab expansions transmit later subbranches.
Phylogeny & subclades
A desert-oriented J1-L147.1 lineage with diversification across the northern Arabian and Syrian desert margins.
- ZS3604*
- Northern Arabian microbranches
- Syro-Arabian steppe derivatives
Notes & context
Useful for reconstructing demographic adaptations to desert ecologies and early pastoral mobility patterns.
References & external links