Overview
J2b-Z42510 is a downstream lineage of the J2b-M241 complex, centered on the southern Balkans, Aegean basin and western Anatolia. Its early stages trace to late Neolithic and Chalcolithic populations that occupied coastal plains, river valleys and island communities. These groups played a role in establishing early maritime and riverine trading systems connecting the Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean coasts.
During the Bronze Age, Z42510-bearing communities participated in Aegean cultural networks tied to Mycenaean centers, island polities and western Anatolian settlement systems. The downstream phylogenetic structure of the clade reveals microregional expansions along the Aegean islands, Thracian coasts and western Anatolian shore. Iron Age and classical populations across Greece and the southern Balkans retained derivative subclades, highlighting deep continuity within the Aegean demographic sphere.
Geographic distribution
Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, western Turkey; minor presence in coastal Italy, Cyprus and North Macedonia.
Ancient DNA
- Neolithic Balkan individuals contain upstream J2b-M241 elements that precede the diversification of Z42510.
- Aegean Bronze Age genomes show J2b lineages compatible with the phylogenetic position of this clade.
- Western Anatolian Bronze Age contexts preserve ancestral signatures tied to Z42510.
- Iron Age southern Balkan and Aegean island populations contain downstream variants.
- Classical Greek coastal communities maintain microbranches consistent with Z42510 structure.
Phylogeny & subclades
A coastal oriented J2b-M241 branch with diversification across Aegean islands, southern Balkan river systems and western Anatolian coastal plains.
- Z42510*
- Aegean island derivatives
- Southern Balkan microclades
Notes & context
Z42510 is key to tracing population continuity across the Aegean-Balkan-Anatolian interaction network.
References & external links