Overview
J2a-Y18290 is a downstream lineage of J2a-M67 with a demographic center in the Armenian plateau, eastern Anatolia and the northern Mesopotamian borderlands. Its earliest diversification aligns with middle Holocene upland agricultural communities that formed stable settlements along the Upper Tigris river system and surrounding plateau regions. Archaeological correlations include fortified Chalcolithic sites, upland agro pastoral economies and obsidian-linked interaction zones.
During the Bronze Age, Y18290 bearing populations were embedded in the cultural and demographic processes associated with the Kura Araxes horizon, highland metallurgy and cross-regional exchange networks linking the southern Caucasus with northern Mesopotamia. The persistence of Y18290 in highland communities indicates long-term demographic continuity across multiple archaeological periods, including the Iron Age and classical upland polities.
Geographic distribution
Most common in Armenia, eastern Turkey, northwest Iran; moderate in northern Iraq and Georgia; low frequencies in the Levant and central Anatolia.
Ancient DNA
- Armenian Bronze Age samples present J2a signatures consistent with ancestral Y18290.
- Chalcolithic Upper Tigris individuals include upstream J2a lineages related to this clade.
- Bronze Age eastern Anatolian remains carry variants compatible with early Y18290.
- Iron Age highland settlements show downstream diversification of the lineage.
- Classical highland populations maintain continuity with Y18290 derived branches.
Phylogeny & subclades
A structured highland centered J2a-M67 branch with microclades clustered across the Armenian plateau and eastern Anatolia.
- Y18290*
- Armenian plateau derivatives
- Upper Tigris segments
Notes & context
A highland rooted lineage illustrating the demographic continuity of eastern Anatolian and Armenian plateau populations.
References & external links