Overview
J2b-Y22218 is a downstream branch within the J2b-M241 radiation with a demographic axis spanning the southern Balkans, Aegean coastal regions and western Anatolia. Its earliest development corresponds to mid Holocene Balkan agricultural spreads and the formation of maritime cultural networks that connected mainland Greece, the Aegean islands and western Anatolia. Archaeological parallels include late Neolithic Balkan settlements and early Bronze Age coastal centers.
During the Bronze Age, Y22218 bearing populations were likely involved in Mycenaean demographic expansions, Adriatic-Aegean mobility routes and coastal Anatolian urban developments. The clade’s downstream lineages show founder effects clustered in island and coastal communities, indicative of sustained maritime-oriented settlement patterns.
Geographic distribution
Highest in Greece, Albania and western Turkey; moderate in Bulgaria, Cyprus and North Macedonia; lower in southern Italy and the Levant.
Ancient DNA
- Late Neolithic Balkans show J2b structures compatible with ancestral Y22218.
- Aegean Bronze Age burials present upstream markers linked to the lineage.
- Western Anatolian Bronze Age individuals preserve paternal traces tied to Y22218.
- Iron Age Levantine samples include downstream derivatives.
- Classical Greek settlements display continuity with Y22218 derived clusters.
Phylogeny & subclades
A coastal and Aegean oriented J2b lineage with multiple microclades shaped by maritime mobility and coastal founder effects.
- Y22218*
- Aegean coastal branches
- Western Anatolian derivatives
Notes & context
A major J2b branch illuminating Aegean-Balkan-Anatolian demographic exchange during the Bronze and classical periods.
References & external links