Geographical Distribution

The earliest ancient ZZ11>DF27 remains to be identified so far date to around 2300 BC in continental Europe.  ZZ11 is also the 'father' of the large more easily identified ancient subclade, U152.  Therefore the two 'brothers' ZZ11>DF27 and ZZ11>U152's earliest places of origin could be close by to each other.  These yDNA haplogroups are linked to steppe-derived peoples that became known as the Corded Ware, Bell Beaker and Single Grave cultures of prehistoric Europe.  DF27 looks to be the most widely distributed R1b-P312  subclade - in as far as it is found in similar frequencies in all of Europe outside its place of modern highest frequency.

Distribution map, above, by GOM showing the ratio of present day DF27 in European countries in the FTDNA database as a percentage of R1b-P312.  Bear in mind that some countries have low frequency of R1b-P312 and a low sample size, link

Based on modern data, DF27 makes up roughly one quarter of R1b-P312 across Europe with higher frequencies in Iberia, France and Belgium/Netherlands.  The place that DF27, U106, L21 and U152 are found in equal numbers today is central/northern France.  The region of Normandy appears to have broadly equal amounts of modern DF27, U106, L21 and U152 in FTDNA's hobbyist database.  DF27 is the most frequent R1b-P310 haplogroup in much of the rest of the regions of France with its highest frequency in Provence, Aquitaine Midi-Pyrénées and Rhone-Alpes (2021 FTDNA R1b samples put through Nevgen).  In the north of France the mapping of FTDNA data shows DF27 in Pas-de-Calais and Picardy at a higher frequency than the other three R1b-P310 subclades.  Modern L21 is highest in frequency in Brittany to the west of Pas-de-Calais/Picardy and U152 is higher in frequency to the east, in Champagne and Lorraine.  This website in 2019 used the 'PhyloGeographer algorithm version 3' to compute the theoretical origin of R-DF27 as Pas-de-Calais (with caveats).  England, Denmark and Sweden have higher DF27 frequencies than Scotland, Wales and Ireland with DF27 making up around one quarter of modern P312 in those countries.  In 2021 analysis of DF27 distribution in Ireland suggested that DF27 is more frequent in areas that may have been settled in more recent times, i.e. the pastureland in Tipperary/the Golden Vale and the eastern coast of Northern Ireland.

ZZ19, the large Bronze Age branch of DF27 that Rox2 descends from, has a presence today across Europe - in the north, east, south and west.  July 2017 NGS kit from Armenia, via Iran, 657355, belongs to the same ancient subbranch as Rox2 (DF27>ZZ12>FGC78762>ZZ19>Z34609).  Kit 657355's subclade, also contains kit N123269 from Spain, at the opposite end of Europe.  Modern Z34609* results are found in several different countries, including Czech Republic, Italy, Iberia and Germany.  Large-scale migration into Britain during the Middle to Late Bronze Age, Nick Patterson et al., 2021, Nature, revealed  the earliest ZZ19 found so far (dated c. 1817 BCE) to be I15033/RL 90.30.1.6 (P2434) [P312 in the paper, Alex Williamson analysis: ZZ19] from Port Blanc, Quiberon, Morbihan, France.  Later ZZ19 burials were identified by the paper in Iron Age England, with a cluster in the East Yorkshire Arras culture.  No ZZ19 has yet been found (for certain) before the Iron Age in Britain.  The handful of the larger Early Medieval DF27>ZZ19 subclades in Britain and Ireland are relatively incongruous in comparison to the much higher number of large L21 founding events there.  See the Iron Age page.  Ancient individual with DF27>ZZ12>ZZ19, VK261 from Population genomics of the Viking world, Ashot Margaryan et al., 2020, was an executed Viking (dated 10th-11th centuries AD) from the Ridgeway Hill Mass Grave, Dorset, England.  His full phylogeny is ZZ19>Z31644>FGC13128>FGC78763>BY64643.  More ZZ19 originating from northern continental Europe was identified in the Nature article The Anglo-Saxon migration and the formation of the early English gene pool, Gretzinger et al., 2022.  See the Medieval DF27 page for more details on the Viking and Anglo-Saxon examples.  In the absence of firm ancient DNA evidence pointing to a specific location at a specific time, Rox2's origins could potentially trace back to anywhere in northern Europe in Late Antiquity.

Rox2 currently has an exclusively northern European distribution and members of its subclades are found in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man, Orkney, Norway, Sweden, Finland and northern France (Normandy).  The locations of most earliest known ancestors' places of birth can be approximately split into thirds; Scotland (mainly central/south west/Borders), England (mainly north) and Ireland (mainly the north).  Some potential matches also show up in the southernmost parts of England.  See this page for the approximate recent geographical distribution of modern DNA hobbyists who match Rox2.

To date a number of ZZ12 subclades remain undetected and anonymous in many archaeological studies.  The ISOGG 2019 tree (used by ancient yDNA studies) had poor coverage of SNPs downstream of DF27>ZZ12 and those of some other P312 subclades.  In contrast to inaccurate chip-based tests that reported most DF27>ZZ12 as undifferentiated P312* or P310*, the October 2017 study, Defining Y-SNP variation among the Flemish population (Western Europe) by full genome sequencing by Maarten H.D. Larmuseau et al. used high resolution NGS testing.  As a consequence that study successfully and accurately reported all DF27.  This gives some optimism for the future.  R1b made up 61.5% of the Flemish study.  There were 22 DF27+ samples out of the 270, or 8.14% of all Flemish yDNA in that study.  12 of those are probably ZZ12.  Of particular interest regarding Rox2, three of those DF27>ZZ12 Flemish men are R1b R-Z34609.  This is Rox2's own deep (ancient) ancestor immediately downstream of ZZ19, although none of the three are Rox2 matches.  One R-Z34609 burial was found in the East Yorkshire Iron Age burials.  The 2019 Nature article The Dutch Y-chromosomal landscape, Eveline Altena et al. (pdf) studied 2085 males from across the Netherlands, of whom 441 (21.15%) were found to be R1b-P312.  The phylogentic definition is not as in depth as the above Larmuseau et al. study.  6.17% of those were R1b-U152 and 8.54% were R1b-P312*.  R1b-M167 is a DF27 haplogroup that was identified and made up 1.49%.  DF27 itself was not identified but is likely to make up much of the undifferentiated R1b-P312* percentage.  The percentages therefore probably broadly match DF27 frequency found in the above 2017 Larmuseau et al. study.  In the future there will be tens of thousands of ancient genome sequences from across the world, hopefully being analysed using NGS results and up-to-date phylogenetic trees.  The Busby et al. DNA study found significant amounts of modern DF27 in the area of Paris in France (North Central France 48.8566667 2.3509871).  Of 91 samples P312xL21,U152 (probably mostly DF27) made up the largest number of R1b-P310 samples at 17.6%.  Next was U152 with 14.3%, then L21 at 9.9% and U106 at 7.7%.

Going by sparse prehistoric DNA findings in Britain, DF27 appears to show up first in low numbers in the southwest in Bronze Age Somerset and Wiltshire (individuals dated to c. 1800 BC and c. 1471 BC respectively), near Stonehenge.  That area was then a central part of the Bronze Age Wessex culture that had trading networks with France and central (Middle Rhine Bell Beaker) and northern Europe, and imported bronze tools.  Wessex culture was related to groups in northern France near the present-day 'hot spot' for DF27 - in the region of Pas-de-Calais and Belgium.  Those areas were formerly in the southern territory of the Hilverum culture.  See the Ancient DF27 page.  DF27>ZZ19 is later found in the Parisi tribal areas of East Yorkshire in the Iron Age.  The Parisi were people who probably arrived from continental northern Europe who were associated with the unique (for Britain) Yorkshire Arras culture.  Cultural connections with continental Iron Age La Tène tribes can be seen in their artifacts and burial methods.  Their Parisii namesakes in Europe lived in the region of modern Paris in France and gave the name to the city.  The Rivers Oise and Marne flow into the Seine in the Parisii tribal lands from the northeast, from Belgium and Germania - near the La Tène heartlands.  Paris, on the River Seine, was a hub in an ancient trade route using river travel between Germania and Hispania/Occitania, link.  Contact continued to be made between the southeast coast of continental Europe and Britain via the island of Walcheren from at least Roman times.  Maritime trade routes circulated the North Sea.  Coastal freelance trading and artisan centres emerged around the North Sea shore lines following the Roman withdrawal in the seventh century; there was generally an increase in imported pottery and large numbers of Frisian coins appear around the British side of the North Sea in the eighth century. 

Above, bronze shield, 1200-700 BC British Museum, via Wikimedia Commons

DF27, U152 and U106 may not have entered Britain in significant numbers until after the Late Bronze Age (1200 BC) and during the Iron Age (c. 600 BC - 43 AD).  Before then L21 appears to have been the predominant yDNA haplogroup in Britain.  DF27 and U152 have higher frequencies today in the part of the British Isles that experienced most post-Bronze Age immigration from the continent i.e. England.

Rox2 has a time of expansion some time after the Iron Age - in the Early Medieval Period.  The four large British and Irish DF27>ZZ19 subclades on the hobbyist phylogenetic trees including Rox2 appear to have had their sudden founding events at around the same time in the Early Medieval Period.  The Early Middle Ages begin with the Migration Period and end around the time of the Norman Conquest in England, those events bookend the Viking Age expansion and diaspora across northern and western Europe in the ninth century.  Scandinavians settled in many of the same areas of Britain/Ireland that Rox2 matches' earliest known ancestors are now found - see Distribution Map.  The 'vikings' were a significant presence around the coastlines of the North Sea in the Early Middle Ages.  Recent Iron Age, Anglo-Saxon and Viking studies indicate that DF27>ZZ19 subclades had a presence in the North Sea region from at least the Iron Age.  

By the 1200s AD Rox2 would have probably been established in several parallel paternal family lines (SNP-defined branches) in many different locations.  There are indications that some of those branches experienced their time of expansion around the time of, or just after, the Norman Conquest at the end of the eleventh century.  Other branches exhibit potentially earlier founding events.  The Isle of Man contains at least three old Manx lineages with Rox2 yDNA.  This is possibly the highest concentration of Rox2 matches from different branches with different surnames in such a small well-defined geographical area.  Some Rox2 matches appear to have origins along the south coast of England.  In the North many Rox2 families today bear some of the well known 'Border reiver' and old Scottish surnames.  The wide distribution that seems to have occurred within a few centuries of the formation of the subclade hints at an association with Early Medieval maritime movement.

The Border Reivers, or at least those on the north side of the border are sometimes considered to be just another group of outlying Highland Scottish clans and that those on the south side are simply clans who have spilled over into England. In reality the Border Reivers formed a distinct group with few links to the Scottish Highland tribes to the far north.  Link.

A few Rox2 matches have long paper trails that trace back before the Industrial Revoloution.  The Corners/Cornays/Corneys lived, farmed and sailed from rural northeast Yorkshire for several centuries and were probably living in the same area as early as the late-thirteenth century.  The surname potentially has its origins in the French Romance language of the near continent.  Other Rox2 matches with early paper trails but on a different parallel branch (under FGC11414>BY21591) also have pre-colonial era roots in the County of Yorkshire - around the West Riding.  FGC11414>FGC12953 kits have sixteenth century origins in Cumbria, North West England.  The Swedish Rox2 matches (FGC11414>BY21590) are also descended from old rural families that trace back to the beginning of parish records there, in the sixteenth century, in and around Bureå, Skellefteå Municipality in northern Sweden.  As with the Yorkshire Rox2 branches, FGC11414>BY21590 are likely to have been in the same locality centuries before parish records began.  After a medieval founding event in northern Scandinavia the BY21590 yDNA subclade is now widespread in Sweden. 

General locations of earliest known ancestors (many self-reported) of Rox2 NGS kits from each named subclade on the Big Tree/Big Tree.

The video below lays out a concise historical timeline that tracks the movement of people and languages in most of the places that Rox2 is found in.  The Early Medieval Rox2 'brothers' could have joined in the conversation at some point in the eighth century.

Links

Holme from Home. Lecture on ninth century place-names in eastern England by Dr. Rebecca Gregory at the University of Nottingham: Key to English Place-names.

National Library of Scotland: Old maps

The Irish DNA Atlas: Revealing Fine-Scale Population Structure and History within Ireland: link