Overview
J2a-Y17844 is a highland-derived subclade of J2a-M67, associated primarily with the early Holocene agricultural communities of eastern Anatolia, the Armenian plateau and the northern Zagros corridor. Its formation corresponds to a period when upland farming systems and mixed agro-pastoral lifeways were becoming deeply established. Archaeological parallels include early terraced cultivation sites, obsidian exchange networks and localized metalworking traditions.
During the Bronze Age, Y17844-bearing populations appear to have been integrated into socio-political landscapes shaped by fortified upland settlements, mountain corridor trade, and highland metallurgical hubs. Its downstream structure demonstrates microregional expansions in the Armenian highlands and the Upper Tigris basin. Iron Age and classical populations in these same upland zones preserve a pattern of continuity consistent with Y17844 subbranches.
Geographic distribution
Armenia, eastern Turkey, northwest Iran, northern Iraq; rare in Georgia and northern Syria.
Ancient DNA
- Chalcolithic Upper Tigris individuals contain upstream J2a-M67 markers compatible with ancestral Y17844.
- Early Bronze Age Armenian plateau genomes show paternal signatures consistent with the lineage.
- Eastern Anatolian Bronze Age burials present upstream components related to the clade.
- Iron Age upland settlements preserve downstream variants across Armenian and Mesopotamian highlands.
- Classical upland populations maintain microbranch continuity linked to this lineage.
Phylogeny & subclades
A highland-based J2a-M67 lineage with downstream diversification concentrated around the Armenian plateau and adjacent mountain systems.
- Y17844*
- Armenian highland microbranches
- Upper Tigris derivatives
Notes & context
Y17844 helps trace upland demographic endurance from the Chalcolithic through classical periods.
References & external links