Haplogroup I2-Z17855 among Serbs

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%.