of the earliest known Slavic sites. Thus this would have been a region from which an indigenous population would naturally have fled". Genetic studies Various genetic studies have been done on the European population, some of them including current Albanian population, Albanian-speaking populations outside Albania, and the Balkan region as a whole. Albanians share similar genetics with neighbouring ethnic populations with close clusters forming primarily with mainland Greeks and southern Italian populations. Y-DNA The three haplogroups most strongly associated with Albanian people are E-V13, R1b and J2b-L283. E-V13, the most common European sub-clade of E1b1b1a (E-M78) represents about 1/3 of all Albanian men and peaks in Kosovo (~40%). The current distribution of this lineage might be the result of several demographic expansions from the Balkans, such as that associated with the Balkan Bronze Age, and more recently, during the Roman era with the so-called "rise of Illyrian soldiery". The peak of the haplogroup in Kosovo, however, has been attributed to genetic drift. R1b-M269 represents about 1/5 of Albanian men, mostly under clades R-Z2103 and R-PF7562. It is linked with the introduction of the Indo-European languages in the Balkans. The oldest R1b (> R-RPF7562) sample in historically Albanian-inhabited regions has been found in EBA Çinamak, northern Albania, 2663-2472 calBCE (4045±25 BP, PSUAMS-7926). In the same site during the Iron Age, half of the men carried R-M269 (R-CTS1450 x1). J2b-L283 represents 14-18% of Albanian men. It peaks in northern Albania. The oldest J-L283 (> J-Z597) sample in Albania found in MBA Shkrel as early as the 19th century BC. It first spread from the northwestern Balkans southwards during the EBA/MBA with cultures likes Cetina (Dalmatia) and Cetina-derived groups which have yielded most J-L283 samples in antiquity. In a 2022 study, J-L283 and its paternal clade J-M241 were found in three out of seven Daunian samples. In IA Çinamak(northern Albania), half of the samples belonged to J-L283. Y haplogroup I is represented by I1 more common in northern Europe and I2 where several of its sub-clades are found in significant amounts in the South Slavic population. The specific I sub-clade which has attracted most discussion in Balkan studies currently referred to as I2a1b, defined by SNP M423 This clade has higher frequencies to the north of the Albanophone area, in Dalmatia and Bosnia. The expansion of I2a-Din took place during Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages and today is common in Slavic speaking