Haplogroup J2a Iron Age Altai

[Black Wolf]

Some further digging and reading has revealed that this sample is labelled RISE602 in the RISE project and was discovered in the Sary-Bel kurgan. It has been dated to Iron Age (900/700 BC-AD 500/1000 ) and a rough translation from a Russian site has this to say about this burial site. ''So Sarah burial cemetery date back to the beginning of Bel-Hun-Sarmatian time and,
may belong to the people, which penetrated into the Altai Mountains to the southeast".

The Bulan-Kobin culture evolved out of the Pazyryk culture which was Scythian. So there seems like there is a possibility then that this J2a male may have belonged to the Bulan-Kobin culture which had its origins in the earlier Pazyryk culture.

This site also seems to give a bit of background information about the Sar-Bel kurgan where this J2a sample was found. Here is an interesting quote.

''The monuments of the subsequent Hun-Sarmat period of Gorny Altai were almost unknown until lately. However, about 20 monuments of the period of VI centuries B.C. were found and explored during the last two decades. Here belong the burial mounds of Ust-Edigan, Tchendeck, Verkh-Uimon, Sary-Bel, Bulan-Koby, Airydash, Kuraika and others. Other archeological monuments such as settlements, shrines, production centers are also known.''

http://www.altaidt.com/pages/archaeology

[Artek]

Pazyryk samples were tested to be R1a but I guess that J2a was part of them, since mixing with BMAC people occurred on their way to the East and Southeast.