Overview
J2a-Y18973 represents a downstream element of the J2a-M67 highland-centered radiation and is strongly linked to the demographic history of eastern Anatolia, the Armenian plateau and northern Mesopotamia. Its early formation aligns with the consolidation of upland agricultural societies in the early Holocene, marked by the appearance of fortified upland settlements, terraced agriculture and enduring obsidian trade networks between the Lake Van region, the Upper Euphrates basin and the northern Zagros foothills. Through the Bronze Age, Y18973-bearing communities were embedded in the highland settlement systems that formed the backbone of regional metallurgy, pastoral mobility and mountain corridor trade. Its downstream phylogenetic structure points to a series of microregional founder events in enclosed valleys and plateau basins. Iron Age and classical populations across the Armenian highlands, eastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia preserve paternal haplogroups that align well with the expected demographic footprint of Y18973.