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Haplogroup T-M184

T-M184 is a rare, widely scattered lineage of the Near East, Mediterranean and Horn of Africa, never a majority anywhere in Europe, but with striking local peaks. 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

T-M184

Testers: 7,856; 229 on this exact branch
Strongest today: United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman
Formed
Oldest man on this line

See it on the map Explore it in the full tree

Origin and distribution of T-M184

What is T-M184? It is one of the rarest major paternal haplogroups, a Near Eastern lineage that began diversifying about 25,000 years ago and then dispersed thinly into Europe and Africa. It peaks locally in the Horn of Africa and among several Jewish communities rather than anywhere in Europe.

Where it began: Ten new markers resolved 11 lineages and the two large subclades T1a and T1b, and the branching dates suggest haplogroup T began to diversify in the Near East about 25,000 years ago.Source: Increased Resolution of Y Chromosome Haplogroup T Defines Relationships among Populations of the Near East, Europe, and Africa (2011)
How it dispersed: The survey points to a complex history of dispersal within the Near East and from there to Europe and sub-Saharan Africa, with T1a2 chromosomes present in both Jewish and non-Jewish Near Eastern populations.Source: Increased Resolution of Y Chromosome Haplogroup T Defines Relationships among Populations of the Near East, Europe, and Africa (2011)
Its nearest relative: The same work reports a marker that links haplogroups T and L within the major framework of Y chromosome evolution, so the two rare lineages are siblings.Source: Increased Resolution of Y Chromosome Haplogroup T Defines Relationships among Populations of the Near East, Europe, and Africa (2011)
Where it is common: Typically around one man in a hundred in Mediterranean Europe and rarer north of the Alps, with local peaks in the Horn of Africa, southern Egypt, Sardinia, southern Italy and Ibiza.
Its ancient record: T appears in early farming contexts of the Near East and among Neolithic villagers in Europe, so its rarity today reflects later turnover rather than late arrival.
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.

T-M184 is one of the rarest major haplogroups a European tester can draw, typically around one man in a hundred in Mediterranean Europe, and rarer north of the Alps. Its deep origin lies in the Near East, and it moved with the same Neolithic and maritime currents as J2 and E lineages: ancient DNA finds T in early farming contexts from the Levant and even among Neolithic villagers of central Germany.

What the lineage lacks in frequency it makes up in geography: local peaks among Somali and other Horn of Africa populations (where T1a2 reaches high frequencies), in southern Egypt, among Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish lineages, in Sardinia, southern Italy and Ibiza. A T result usually means a paternal line with an unusual, traceable story rather than a common regional one.

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.

Saudi Arabia

498 · 25%

United Arab Emirates

272 · 14%

Italy

215 · 11%

Iraq

202 · 10%

Germany

138 · 7.0%

United States

127 · 6.5%

England

112 · 5.7%

Turkey

111 · 5.7%

Plus 4,281 testers who gave no country. Shares are of testers with a known country.

Where this branch runs strongest

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

United Arab Emirates

1 in 5 · 20%

Bahrain

1 in 8 · 13%

Oman

1 in 9 · 11%

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 T-M184?

T-M184 is a rare, widely scattered lineage of the Near East, Mediterranean and Horn of Africa, never a majority anywhere in Europe, but with striking local peaks. 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 T-M184?

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 T-M184 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: