Haplogroup X is a type of mitochondrial DNA group found in humans. It appears in North America, Europe, Western Asia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa.
It split from haplogroup N about 30,000 years ago, around the time of the last major ice age. It gave rise to subgroups X2, which formed 16,000 to 21,000 years ago, and X1, which formed 14,000 to 24,000 years ago.
Distribution
Haplogroup X is found in about 2% of native Europeans and 13% of native North Americans. It occurs in around 3% of Assyrians, with higher levels in Erzurum, Turkey. It is especially common, at 14.3%, among people in Bahariya Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert. Subgroup X1 is rarer and mostly limited to North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Near East.
Subgroup X2 spread widely around or soon after the last ice age, about 20,000 years ago. It is more common in the Near East, Caucasus, and southern Europe, with lower levels in other parts of Europe. The highest rates are among the Ojibwe (25%), Sioux (15%), Nuu-Chah-Nulth (12%), people in Georgia (8%), Orkney (7%), and Druze in Israel (27%). Subgroups of X2 are not found in South American indigenous groups. The oldest known link to X2 is Kennewick Man, a 9,000-year-old skeleton from Washington State.
Ancient DNA Evidence
Haplogroup X has been identified in ancient bones from various sites. These include remains tied to early farming cultures in Europe, such as Alföld Linear Pottery (one site showed 100% X2b), Linearbandkeramik (about 5% X2d1), and Chalcolithic sites in Iberia (33% X2b at two sites and about 8% at another). It was also found in a man from Galilee in Israel who lived between 1014 and 836 BC (X2b), as well as in ancient Assyrian remains and Egyptian mummies from the late New Kingdom to Roman times. Additionally, X2 appears in 5,000-year-old remains from a site in Morocco.
Among the Druze
In Eurasia, haplogroup X is most common and varied among the Druze people in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, with 16% X1 and 11% X2. This mix matches their oral stories of diverse origins. The isolated Druze in Galilee preserve an early picture of genetic patterns in the Near East before modern changes.
In North America
Haplogroup X, mainly subgroup X2a, is one of five DNA groups in indigenous peoples of the Americas. It makes up about 3% overall but reaches 25% among Algonquian groups. It appears at lower rates in the Sioux (15%), Nuu-Chah-Nulth (11–13%), Navajo (7%), and Yakama (5%). In Latin America, related forms like X6 are found in small numbers among the Tarahumara (1.8%) and Huichol (20%), and X6/X7 in the Yanomami (12%).
Unlike the other main Native American DNA groups (A, B, C, D), X is not closely tied to East Asia. It is rare in Asia, mostly seen in Altai and Evenk peoples of Siberia. One idea is that it reached North America from Central Asia along with the other groups. An older theory suggested migration from Europe during the ice age, but evidence does not support this, as no early forms of X2a exist in Europe or the Near East. Instead, X2a likely developed in early Native American populations around 13,000 years ago, with a basic form seen in Kennewick Man.
Atlantean migration
