19,000

Years Ago

Origin and Migrations of Haplogroup X2

Your maternal line stems from a branch of haplogroup X called X2, an offshoot that has spread far and wide. Members of X2 can trace their maternal lines back to a woman who lived during the peak of the Ice Age approximately 19,000 years ago, somewhere in the Middle East or the Caucasus region of western Eurasia. As the climate warmed and the massive continental glaciers covering much of the Northern Hemisphere began to retreat, people on the X2 branch joined a rapid northward expansion into the previously ice-covered zone.

One group of women and their families headed west, hugging the Mediterranean coastline of Europe. That group seeded the higher levels of X2 that can be found today in southern European countries like Spain, Italy, Greece,and Turkey. A second group carried X2 eastward into Central Asia. The X2 haplogroup occasionally appears among people even farther east in Asia, such as the traditionally nomadic Altai of southwestern Siberia. However, the few Altai individuals who do belong to X2 stem from a branch that perfectly matches one found in the Caucasus, suggesting a second X2 migration less than 6,000 years ago.

Its current distribution stretches from Scotland to Morocco and eastward to Siberia. One particular branch, X2a, is found exclusively in North America.