Hey, thanks for the reply!
That does make a lot of sense. I’ve looked into the ancient samples known for now but unfortunately there are still no ancient J-PH502 to be seen. Only its brother branch which was found among Liburnians.
Southward expansion sounds very reasonable but I can’t imagine the historical context within which it happened, as well as the identity that our common ancestor(s) would have carried and at what time, especially in the contexts of Slavic expansion plus continuous Albanian expansion from Albania itself.
It especially adds onto the mystery that there are Erzya-speaking Russians today who would have split from our common J-Y40852 ancestor some 2500 years ago.
To me this implies an event around 500BC that would have caused some to migrate southwards (from the area of northern Dalmatia?) and others northwards, both subsequently assimilated by Slavs. Or maybe not, if we dare ask the question of how long my ancestors have been Serbs for, or alternatively how long my Hot “cousin’s” ancestors have been Albanians for?
I imagine that there is no answer to these questions for now. Is there any other genetic or historic data that could guide to more specific info regarding our ancestors’ migrations, identities, etc? Would it be possible to get into contact with the man from Lipljan, or somehow get to hear his family’s story perhaps? I don’t know exactly how it works here on Rrenjet, my apologies if some of the questions don’t make sense.