Haplogroup I2-Z17855 is one of the haplogroups of
Slavic origin present in the Serbian population. It represents a branch of the
haplogroup more commonly known as the I2a Dinaric defined by SNP YP196. The phylogenetic line for the Z17855 looks like this:
I2a-M423>L621>YP196>Z17855
Age of haplogroup Y4882 is estimated at about 1600
years bp. The
geographic area of the presence of this branch shows slightly greater
compactness compared to other branches of the haplogroup I2a-YP196, which can
be due to the relative youth of the branch and the moving of its carriers in one
migration direction.
Judging by today's geographical presence of its carriers, there is
almost no doubt that the Z17855 ancestors moved from the southwestern Ukraine area, along eastern slopes of the
Carpathians to the lower Danube. This
migration route of Slavic expansion can be traced through both historical and
archaeological sources. At the beginning of the 6th century AD, two groups of
Slavs (Sclaveni and Antes) appeared on the borders of the Eastern Roman Empire,
i.e on the river Danube, in the area of today's Wallachia. In the first phase of migration, Antes were more present in the mentioned area,
bringing with them the elements of Penkovka archaeological culture, but later, Sclaveni of Prague-Korchak culture, who came from the north through the
valley of river Siret, became more dominant. In this way, some kind of hybrid Sclaveni-Antes archaeological culture, known as Ipotesti–Candesti, was created. We should seek the carriers of the haplogroup Z17855 among the Prague-Korchak
elements in the Slavic archaeological culture of the Lower Danube of 6th century AD. According to the phylogenetic tree, it seems
that this haplogroup experienced extensive branching just after arrival to the Balkans, significantly contributing to ethnogenesis
of Serbs,
Bulgarians and Macedonian Slavs and participating in the ethnogenesis of modern
non-Slavic peoples: Greeks, Albanians and
Romanians.
Z17855* Greek, Greek Macedonia; Székely, Transylvania; Serb, Western Serbia
Z17855>А1221 Moldova/Ukraine; Bulgarian, eastern Thrace
Z17855>А1221>BY37207>Y52071 Bulgarian, NW
Bulgaria
Z17855>А1221>BY37207>Y52071>Y46846 Bulgarian, northern Bulgaria
Z17855>А1221>BY37207>Y52071>Y46846>Y151313 Serbs, Ibar and Toplica
Z17855>А1221>BY37207>Y39505 Ukrainian, SW Ukraine; Poland
Z17855>A21934 Ukraine
Z17855>A21934>BY45676 Greek, southern Epirus; Greek
Z17855>PH3414 Serbs
of Mirilovic clan
Z17855>A16413 Ukrainian,
central Ukraine
Z17855>A16413>BY153008 Serb, Toplica
Z17855>A16413>BY37212 Romanian, Transylvania
Z17855>A16413>BY37212>А20030>BY99606 Serbia; eastern Macedonia
Z17855>A16413>BY37212>А20030>BY66632 Serbs, Montenegro(Ljesnjani Vojinici)
Z17855>BY116090 Turk; Serb , eastern Serbia
Z17855>Y68571
Russian, SW Russia; Russian
Z17855>BY190177 Romanian; Bulgarian, central Bulgaria
In the opinion of Tibor Živković, a Serbian
historian, Slavs permanently settled the central parts of the Balkan peninsula in
the second decade of the 7th century,
around 615 AD, from the area of today's Wallachia, i.e lower Danube area. On that occasion, the Slavic tribes inhabited parts of Greece, Epirus,
and Peloponnese, and some Slavic tribes also had penetrated, albeit in a small number, to
some Aegean islands. It is presumed that it was Slavs free from the Avar rule, who used the weakness of the
Roman defense because
of the wars in the
east, and penetrated over the Danube
to the Balkans in large numbers. In this wave there
were settled some
Slavic tribes, which are later mentioned
in historical sources, such as:
Druguvites and Sagudates west of Thessaloniki, Rhynchinoi in Chalkidiki,
Belegezites in Thessaly, Baiounitai in Epirus, Berziti in Pelagonia, Strymonites around the
Struma River, Melingoi and the
Ezeritai on the Peloponnese. It seems that I2a-Z17855 was
one of the dominant haplogroups of this group of Slavs.
I2-Z17855 among Serbs
Among modern Serbs Haplogroup I2-Z17855 is
represented in all ethnographic zones, with various branches, which indicates that it has
entered quite early in the processes of Serbian ethnogenesis, and certainly before the migrations of
the 15th and 16th centuries AD. In the Dinaric zone, this haplogroup is more represented
in the eastern, Zeta-Raška area (Ceklinjani Gornjaci, Ljesnjani Vojinici, Sekularci), while in Herzegovina it is represented primarily through a widespread
families that descend from medieval clan of Mirilovici. From this main Dinaric zone, the Herzegovinian and Zetan branches of this haplogroup are also spread
among the Serbs of Krajina, Bosnia and Slavonia. There is a significant presence of this haplogroup among the old
Kosovo-Metohija Serbs, especially those families that can be documented that
they lived in the area of Kosovo and Metohija before the Great Migrations of
the Serbs in 1690 (Kovacani in the Ibar valley). Some branches are also
represented among the Serbs of southern and eastern Serbia. Interestingly, some of the Z17855 clans in the Dinaric zone have legends of origin from eastern Serbian
regions
(Mirilovici from Macedonia, Ceklinjani from Albania),while some have direct
genetic links with the eastern areas (carrriers of the sub-branch A20030
Ljesnjani Vojinici with Macedonia)
We can assume that moving the center of Serbian
statehood to the east and southeast in the 13th and 14th centuries, has contributed to
a more significant inclusion of the haplogroup Z17855 in the medieval Serbian
population, and thus also in the contemporary Serbs. There is a significant diversity
of branches of this haplogroup among Serbs, where practically all the main
branches of this haplogroup are present: Z17855*, А1221, PH3414, A16413 и
BY116090. Roughly, it could be said that the presence of haplogroup 17855 among
Serbs is in the range of 5-10%.
