Overview
J1-ZS4752 is a downstream lineage within the J1-L147.1 Arabian-centered radiation and is associated with pastoralist populations of northern Arabia, the Jordanian desert and the southern Syrian steppe. Its emergence aligns with the maturation of desert pastoral economies based on camel herding, small-ruminant mobility and oasis-to-steppe seasonal movement. These systems formed the backbone of early tribal structures in the Syro-Arabian desert.
Bronze and Iron Age populations linked to ZS4752 likely mediated trans-desert movement and trade, connecting the Levant, Mesopotamia and the interior Arabian Peninsula. The phylogenetic structure reflects founder events tied to desert wells, basalt uplands and ecotone grazing zones. Classical and early Islamic period oases and steppe communities preserve paternal signatures consistent with this lineage, indicating that ZS4752-bearing groups formed part of long-standing desert tribal networks.
Geographic distribution
Northern Arabia, Jordan, southern Syria, Iraq; minor presence in the Hijaz and eastern Levantine regions.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic Levantine samples display upstream J1 markers compatible with ancestral ZS4752.
- Bronze Age northern Arabian individuals possess P58 components near this clade’s early structure.
- Iron Age Syrian steppe samples show downstream branches consistent with ZS4752.
- Classical oasis communities maintain paternal continuity aligned with this lineage.
- Early medieval tribal expansions in northern Arabia preserve derivatives consistent with the clade.
Phylogeny & subclades
A desert-adapted J1-L147.1 lineage diversified across steppe–desert transitional zones of northern Arabia and the southern Levant.
- ZS4752*
- Northern Arabian microbranches
- Syrian desert derivatives
Notes & context
J1-ZS4752 refines the demographic reconstruction of early Arabian tribal landscapes and pastoralist expansions across the Syro-Arabian desert corridor.
References & external links