Rare lines among Chechens: R1a, R1b and T1a
The five lines J2, J1, L1, Q1 and G2 account for 95%. Most of the rest consists of three lines: R1a (1.8%), R1b (1.3%) and T1a (0.6%). R1a and R1b are widespread in the world, T1a is notable from East Africa to the Caucasus. Among Chechens each is notable in only a handful of teips, and the branch shows whom exactly it is shared with.
R1a: the Asian branch, shared with Balkars and Karachays
R1a is one of the most numerous lines of Eurasia, from the Baltic to India: among Poles 57%, among Russians 48%, among the Kyrgyz 58%, among Pashtuns 45%. Almost all of today's R1a descends from one ancestor who lived 5,400 years ago, and his descendants almost immediately split into two large branches: the European and the Asian.
Among Poles, Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians it is the European one. Among the Kyrgyz, Pashtuns and Tajiks — the Asian one, and inside it the Central Asian branch:
| People | Z2125 share |
|---|---|
| Kyrgyz | 51% |
| Pashtuns | 35% |
| Balkars | 21% |
| Karachays | 19% |
| Tajiks | 14% |
| Uzbeks | 13% |
| Chechens | 1% |
Among Chechens R1a is Asian: 61% of its carriers stand on the Asian branch and 48% on the Central Asian one. On the same branch are the neighbours in the North Caucasus, the Balkars and Karachays, and for them it is the main part of all their R1a.
The European branch exists among Chechens too, but it is a minority — 13% of the line's carriers.
Of the teips where R1a is notable, those on the European branch are Sesanoy and Kurchaloy.
Half of the Chechen carriers of R1a converge in a node 4,300 years old — the Bronze Age, the time when the Asian branch was spreading across the steppes. Across the teips the line is distributed thus:
| Teip | Line share |
|---|---|
| Abzoy | 80% |
| Nikhaloy | 60% |
| O'shni | 57% |
Notable: Himoy 20%, Arboy-Qureysh 11%, Sesanoy 10%, Sa'ttoy 10%, Kurchaloy 7%, Mulk'oy 7%, Chartoy 6%, Gukhoy 6%.
One teip has a branch of its own — Nikhaloy, 1,300 years old.
R1b: the eastern branch, not the West European one
R1b is the main line of Western Europe: among Basques 86%, among the Irish 82%, among the English 71%, among the French 62%. It is found in the Caucasus too, and among Tabasarans, Armenians and Kumyks there is a good deal of it.
These are different branches of one line. From an ancestor who lived 6,400 years ago come two branches: the western — from it comes almost all the R1b of Western Europe — and the eastern, which today is found in the Caucasus, in Western Asia and in the Volga region. Among the peoples of the Caucasus the western branch is nearly absent, whereas the eastern one is the main branch:
| People | Z2103 share |
|---|---|
| Tabasarans | 60% |
| Armenians | 28% |
| Kumyks | 19% |
| Azerbaijanis | 17% |
| Avars | 15% |
| Lezgins | 10% |
| Abkhaz | 10% |
| Laks | 10% |
| Georgians | 8% |
| Ossetians | 3% |
| Kabardians | 3% |
| Chechens | 1% |
Among Chechens R1b is eastern: 61% of its carriers stand on the eastern branch. Their common ancestor lived 5,300 years ago.
The western branch is the exception: 4% of the carriers, and of the teips where R1b is notable, only Varandoy have it.
R1b is notable in 9 teips:
Saloy 25%, Chubakhkinaroy 14%, Makazhoy 13%, Kiri 13%, Tsechoy 11%, Varandoy 11%, Kharachoy 8%, Chartoy 6%, Bagacharoy 5%.
T1a: the line of a single teip
T1a is a line of the Middle East and East Africa, 16,500 years old.
| People | Line share |
|---|---|
| Somali | 10% |
| Assyrians | 8% |
| Azerbaijanis | 6% |
| Iraqis | 6% |
| Armenians | 5% |
| Oromo | 5% |
| Chechens | 1% |
Among Chechens T1a is notable in only one teip, Nashkhoy, where it is 30%.
The other lines
Another 1.1% consists of lines with isolated carriers: N1a, D1, I2, C2, R1, E1b.
Sources
Underhill et al., “The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a”, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2015, 23:124, doi 10.1038/ejhg.2014.50 (Z282 and Z93); Myres et al., “A major Y-chromosome haplogroup R1b Holocene era founder effect in Central and Western Europe”, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2011, 19:95, doi 10.1038/ejhg.2010.146 (R1b-M269 in Europe); Mendez et al., “Increased resolution of Y chromosome haplogroup T defines relationships among populations of the Near East, Europe, and Africa”, Human Biology, 2011, 83:39, doi 10.3378/027.083.0103 (T1a-M70); Balanovsky et al., “Parallel evolution of genes and languages in the Caucasus region”, Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2011, 28:2905, doi 10.1093/molbev/msr126 (the lines among the peoples of the Caucasus); Agdzhoyan et al., “Origins of East Caucasus Gene Pool: Contributions of Autochthonous Bronze Age Populations and Migrations from West Asia Estimated from Y-Chromosome Data”, Genes, 2023, 14(9):1780, doi 10.3390/genes14091780 (line frequencies in the Eastern Caucasus); Sánchez et al., “High frequencies of Y chromosome lineages characterized by E3b1, DYS19-11, DYS392-12 in Somali males”, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2005, 13:856–866, doi 10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201390 (T among Somalis); Grugni et al., “Ancient Migratory Events in the Middle East: New Clues from the Y-Chromosome Variation of Modern Iranians”, PLoS ONE, 2012, 7(7):e41252, doi 10.1371/journal.pone.0041252 (Assyrians and Oromo); Al-Zahery et al., “In search of the genetic footprints of Sumerians: a survey of Y-chromosome and mtDNA variation in the Marsh Arabs of Iraq”, BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2011, 11:288, doi 10.1186/1471-2148-11-288 (Iraqis); Herrera et al., “Neolithic patrilineal signals indicate that the Armenian plateau was repopulated by agriculturalists”, European Journal of Human Genetics, 2012, 20(3):313–320, doi 10.1038/ejhg.2011.192 (Armenians).
Whom does your branch inside R1a, R1b or T1a converge with — and when did it diverge from the neighbours?
The full tree of a line, with the ages of all its branches, the gars and nekye within each teip, and a comparison of teips — in the app.