Haplogroup T1
T1 is haplogroup T's steppe-riding wing — a Near Eastern lineage that became a regular passenger of the Bronze Age pastoralist expansions. Explore the branch in the full mtDNA haplotree — sub-branches, defining variants and where its testers live. Free, no account needed.
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Origin and distribution of T1
T1 shares haplogroup T's Near Eastern birth with its larger sibling T2, but wrote a different second act. Its dominant branch T1a appears with the first farmers and then becomes a conspicuous regular of the Bronze Age steppe: Yamnaya, Corded Ware and later pastoralist burials carry T1a lines again and again, and the branch's modern geography — a wide, thin band from Europe through the Volga-Ural region into Central Asia and Iran — still traces those movements.
Nowhere common, T1 is everywhere persistent: a few per cent across most of Europe and the Near East, slightly stronger eastward. For a modern carrier, the interesting question is usually which side of its double history a line belongs to — the farming spread or the steppe one — a question the finer branches, and sometimes an ancient match, can actually answer.
One line among many: your mtDNA haplogroup traces a single maternal line — mother to mother into deep time — so it is a thread of ancestry, not an ethnicity and not a percentage of who you are. Two people in the same branch share a foremother; the rest of their genomes are their own story.
Frequently asked questions
What is haplogroup T1?
T1 is haplogroup T's steppe-riding wing — a Near Eastern lineage that became a regular passenger of the Bronze Age pastoralist expansions. It is a branch of the mtDNA tree: everyone in it inherits the same set of defining mutations from one shared foremother.
How do I find out if I belong to T1?
If you have already tested with a consumer DNA company, the free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder reads a raw DNA export and places you on the tree at the resolution your file supports — free, and the file is discarded after analysis. A dedicated mtDNA sequencing test resolves deeper branches than a genotyping chip can.
Does belonging to T1 make me related to one people?
No. A haplogroup follows a single maternal 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 live browser below shows the branch inside the full mtDNA haplotree of tested lineages — its sub-branches, the variants that define them, and the countries its testers report. Counts reflect people who have taken a mtDNA test and shared an origin, so they describe the tested world, not ancient frequencies.
Keep exploring
Don't know your haplogroup yet? The free mtDNA Haplogroup Finder reads it from a raw DNA export. Or browse the whole tree in the mtDNA Haplotree. Other major branches: