Migration map
Estimated movement and diversification across the world
Select a lineage, then move the period slider to see how estimated origins give way to expansions, migration pathways and modern distribution. Pathways are schematic representations of inferred population movements, not surveyed routes.
E1b splits into E-V38 (E1b1a) and E-M215 (E1b1b). Recorded distribution of E1b1a: E-M2/E-M180 above 80 per cent among Yoruba, Igbo, Akan, Mande and Bantu-speaking populations from Senegal to South Africa, and the single most frequent paternal lineage among African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans and Afro-Brazilians. E1b1b: E-M81 above 70 per cent across Morocco, Algeria and Western Sahara and recovered from Guanche remains in the Canary Islands; E-M78 in Egypt, Libya, Sudan and the Horn; E-V32 above 70 per cent among Somali and Oromo; E-V13 across the Balkans, Greece and southern Italy; E-M123/E-M34 in the Levant, Arabia, Anatolia and among Jewish populations; E-M293 among eastern and southern African pastoralist-descended groups.
Period
Modern · 1500 CE – present
Diaspora
The transatlantic slave trade carries E-M2 branches to the Americas, where they are the most common paternal lineages among people of African descent.
Points shown
North-East Africa — E1b origin
Horn of Africa — E-M215 / E-V32
West Africa — E-M2 (Yoruba, Igbo, Akan)
Mande West Africa — E-M2
Maghreb — E-M81
Western Sahara — E-M81
Egypt — E-M78
Central Africa — E-M2
Southern Africa — Bantu E-M2
East Africa — E-M293 pastoralists
Levant — E-M123 / E-M78
Iberia — E-M81
Italy and the Balkans — E-V13
Greece — E-V13
Anatolia — E-M34
Canary Islands — Guanche E-M81 (aDNA)
Caribbean — diaspora E-M2
North America — diaspora E-M2
Brazil — diaspora E-M2
Guianas — Maroon E-M2
Britain / Europe — modern diaspora E-M2
Arrows summarise the direction of inferred population movements over long timespans. They do not represent single journeys, and they do not imply that earlier populations disappeared.