Description

R1a-Z282 is the dominant paternal lineage of Central and Eastern Europe. It emerged within the Corded Ware culture and represents the western expansion of the R1a-M417 node. This marker is found at high frequencies among Slavic, Baltic, and some Germanic peoples. Its distribution closely follows the historical territories of Balto-Slavic speaking populations, and its subclades can distinguish between Northern (Z284) and Eastern (Z280 / M458) European regional groups.

Interesting Fact

The subclade R1a-Z284, a branch of Z282, is the primary Norse/Viking marker within R1a, showing how this originally steppe lineage became integrated into Scandinavian populations long before the Viking Age.

Distribution by Ethnicity

Ethnic distributionRegionFrequencySample
PolesEastern Europe
55%
n=300
UkrainiansEastern Europe
50%
n=500
RussiansEastern Europe
46%
n=1200
LatviansBaltic
40%
n=200
NorwegiansScandinavia
15%
n=400

Tags

References

  1. Underhill et al. (2015) — The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a. European Journal of Human Genetics.
  2. Margaryan et al. (2020) — Population genomics of the Viking world. Nature.