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Haplogroup G-M201

G-M201 was the lineage of Europe's first farmers (Ötzi the Iceman carried it) and survives today most strongly in the Caucasus, Anatolia and Mediterranean mountain refuges. Explore the branch in the full Y-DNA haplotree: sub-branches, defining variants and where its testers live. Free, no account needed.

Paternal branch

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Paternal line

G-M201

Testers: 25,651; 2,753 on this exact branch
Strongest today: Georgia, Turkey, Armenia
Formed
Oldest man on this line

See it on the map Explore it in the full tree

Origin and distribution of G-M201

Where does G-M201 come from? Its deepest branches point to a homeland near eastern Anatolia, Armenia or western Iran. It was the lineage of Europe's first farmers, Ötzi the Iceman among them, and it survives today most strongly in the Caucasus, Anatolia and mountain refuges.

Where it began: Eastern Anatolia, Armenia and western Iran are the only areas that combine deep basal branches with high sub-haplogroup diversity, which places the homeland of haplogroup G there.Source: Distinguishing the co-ancestries of haplogroup G Y-chromosomes in the populations of Europe and the Caucasus (2012)
Its European and Near Eastern branches: Within the widespread G-P303 branch, G-L497 lineages occur essentially in Europe and likely originated there, while G-U1 lineages are largely restricted to the Near East and the Caucasus.Source: Distinguishing the co-ancestries of haplogroup G Y-chromosomes in the populations of Europe and the Caucasus (2012)
Its most famous carrier: Whole-genome sequencing of the Tyrolean Iceman places his paternal line in haplogroup G.Source: New insights into the Tyrolean Iceman's origin and phenotype as inferred by whole-genome sequencing (2012)
The first-farmer context: The Iceman, directly dated to 3350 to 3120 calibrated BCE, retained the highest Anatolian farmer related ancestry of any contemporary European sampled, with no detectable steppe-related ancestry.Source: High-coverage genome of the Tyrolean Iceman reveals unusually high Anatolian farmer ancestry (2023)
What displaced it: The steppe migrations of the third millennium BCE reshaped Europe's ancestry and its paternal lines, leaving G a minority lineage on the continent it once dominated.Source: Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe (2015)
Where it is common: The Caucasus above all, where it reaches majority frequencies among some highland peoples, plus Anatolia, Iran, the Sardinian interior and Alpine valleys.
What Ancestrify reports: The free Y-DNA Clade Finder places your paternal line on this branch from a raw DNA export, at the resolution your file supports. Ancestry proportions come from the Ancient Ancestry (qpAdm) and Ancestry Map (Global25) reports, never from a haplogroup.

G-M201 is the haplogroup of Europe's Neolithic revolution. In ancient DNA from early farming sites (Anatolia, the Balkans, the LBK villages of Central Europe, Neolithic Iberia), G2a lines are everywhere, often the majority; Ötzi the Iceman, the Alpine mummy of about 3300 BCE, carried G-L91. The Bronze Age steppe expansions then swept most of those lines away, leaving G as a minority lineage across the continent it once dominated.

Its modern strongholds are the places the sweep reached last or least: the Caucasus above all, where G reaches majority frequencies among Ossetians, Svans and other highland peoples, plus Anatolia, Iran, Sardinia's interior and Alpine valleys. That geography makes G-M201 a living map of refuge: a first-farmer lineage persisting in the mountains.

One line among many: your Y haplogroup traces a single paternal line, one ancestor per generation out of thousands, so it is a thread of deep ancestry, not an ethnicity and not a percentage of who you are. Two men in the same branch share a forefather, but the rest of their genomes can differ as much as any two strangers'.

The line through time

Each branch on this line from the root of the tree, oldest first.

Where testers are found

Counts of people who took a Y-DNA test and shared an origin. They describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.

Germany

1,006 · 18%

England

797 · 14%

Italy

710 · 13%

United States

685 · 12%

Russian Federation

454 · 8.1%

Saudi Arabia

382 · 6.9%

France

340 · 6.1%

Turkey

330 · 5.9%

Plus 15,406 testers who gave no country. Shares are of testers with a known country.

1 of them fully sequenced

Where this branch runs strongest

The share of each country's testers who sit on this branch.

Georgia

1 in 3 · 36%

Turkey

1 in 8 · 13%

Armenia

1 in 8 · 12%

What defines it

The changes on the Y chromosome that every man on this branch carries. Positions are on the GRCh38 reference.

Is this your line?

If you have tested with a consumer DNA company, your own branch is already in your raw data file. The free Clade Finder reads it and shows you where you sit on this tree.

Find my branch, free

Prefer it read for you? The Ancient Ancestry report can carry your paternal haplogroup as an add-on, placed on this same tree beside your ancestry model.

Frequently asked questions

What is haplogroup G-M201?

G-M201 was the lineage of Europe's first farmers (Ötzi the Iceman carried it) and survives today most strongly in the Caucasus, Anatolia and Mediterranean mountain refuges. It is a branch of the Y-DNA tree: everyone in it inherits the same set of defining mutations from one shared forefather.

How do I find out if I belong to G-M201?

If you have already tested with a consumer DNA company, the free Y-DNA Clade Finder reads a raw DNA export (23andMe, AncestryDNA, MyHeritage or a VCF) and places you on the tree at the resolution your file supports. It is free, and the file is discarded after analysis. A dedicated Y-DNA sequencing test resolves deeper branches than a genotyping chip can.

Does belonging to G-M201 make me descend from one people?

No. A haplogroup follows a single paternal line, one ancestor per generation, while the rest of your ancestry doubles every generation back. It is a deep-time thread, not an ethnicity, and two members of the same branch can otherwise be as genetically different as any two strangers.

What does this page's tree data show?

The branch view on this page shows the branch inside the full Y-DNA haplotree of tested lineages: the line it descends from, the branches below it, the variants that define it, and the countries its testers report. Counts reflect people who have taken a Y-DNA test and shared an origin, so they describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.

Keep exploring

Don't know your haplogroup yet? The free Y-DNA Clade Finder reads it from a raw DNA export. Or browse the whole tree in the Y-DNA Haplotree. Other major branches: