Modern distribution of R1b-Z2103 “Four out of six
R1b samples from the
Volga-Ural region (Haak et al., 2015) belonged to the
R1b-Z2103 subclade, a branch of what used to be called
R1b-ht35, the eastern variant of
R1b-M269. We can reasonably assume that all
R1b-M269 samples that once fit into the
ht35 or
L23* category are
Z2103, simply because there are only two known subclade under
L23: L51 (ht15) and Z2103 (ht35).
What is not clear from European map above is that
Z2103 has a very wide distribution covering also Central Asia, South Asia and West Asia. Most of the R1b in Asia on the map below is either M73 or Z2103, although the latter is dominant everywhere.According to the R1b1a2 (P312- U106-) DNA Project, Z2103 has five main subclades.-
L584 (including
L943) : found mostly in the South Caucasus, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, but also in Poland, Germany and Austria.
-
L277.1 : found in Russia, Central Asia, Bulgaria, India and the Middle East (Iraq, Lebanon).
-
CTS7822 (including
CTS9219): found in Russia (including Chuvashia), Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, the Balkans, Armenia, Italy, Spain, Britain and Ireland.
- CTS7763 : found in Turkey, Bulgaria and Italy.
-
Z2109 : found in Germany and Scotland.
Overall the distribution of the bulk of R1b-Z2103 samples is reminiscent of that of R1a-Z93. For example
R1b-L277.1 seems to have expanded from Russia to Central Asia then to India and the Middle East, just like the
R1a-L657 subclade of
Z93.
R1b-L584 looks more Mitanni, Iranian, Scythian and maybe also Armenian. It's West Asian distribution matches that of the
R1a-Z2124 subclade of
Z93.
R1b-CTS7822 is mostly central and eastern European and correlates more with
R1a-Z280.
R1b-CTS7763 appears to be confined to the greater ancient Greece (not data from Greece itself, but most of the Greek
R1b-L23 could belong to this subclade considering its presence in South Italy and West Anatolia). It doesn't seem to correlate with any
R1a subclade”.
(
Maciamo’s comment)