Overview
J2b-Z42672 is a downstream component of the J2b-M241 radiation with a demographic focus across the southern Balkans, Aegean islands and western Anatolia. Its early diversification aligns with late Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement systems that integrated agriculture, coastal resource exploitation and the emergence of pre-Bronze Age maritime networks. These communities linked the Adriatic coast, coastal Greece and the islands with western Anatolian littoral settlements.
During the Bronze Age, Z42672-bearing groups participated in the demographic sphere of Mycenaean Greece, Aegean maritime polities and western Anatolian trade hubs. Its downstream phylogenetic structure shows island-specific clustering, Aegean coastal microbranches and expansions tied to riverine systems in the southern Balkans. Iron Age and classical populations across coastal Greece and western Anatolia retain patterns consistent with long-standing continuity of the clade.
Geographic distribution
Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, western Turkey; minor presence in Italy, Cyprus and Montenegro.
Ancient DNA
- Neolithic Balkan individuals contain upstream J2b-M241 diversity compatible with early Z42672 ancestry.
- Aegean Bronze Age samples show paternal components aligned with the general position of this lineage.
- Western Anatolian Bronze Age individuals exhibit ancestral J2b-M241 profiles tied to this clade.
- Iron Age Aegean island communities include downstream signatures reflecting Z42672 diversification.
- Classical Greek and Anatolian coastal settlements maintain paternal structures consistent with this lineage.
Phylogeny & subclades
A coastal and Aegean oriented J2b-M241 branch with diversification in island, coastal and southern Balkan microregions.
- Z42672*
- Aegean microbranches
- Southern Balkan derivatives
Notes & context
Z42672 is critical for understanding the formation of Aegean and southern Balkan maritime connected societies.
References & external links