R1a1a1g2d: a paternal genetic signal from the extinct Baltic Prussians in modern Poles and Germans

The R1a1a Subclades Y-DNA project has some awesome maps. One of the most fascinating, I think, is the image showing the modern and pre-WWII spread of R1a1a1g2d, or R1a, Z280+, Z92+.




Although most people in the project who carry this marker are of Northern Polish, Eastern German and Lithuanian descent, it's actually classified as a Baltic R1a subclade. There's good reason for that; it peaks in a region that was once home to the original Prussians, who were close relatives of modern Baltic-speaking Lithuanians. Today that's Northeastern Poland and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast, while before the war it was Northeastern Poland and East Prussia. The Baltic Prussians are long gone, as far as I know, largely due to the efforts of Poles and Teutonic Knights to dominate and Christianize them during the Middle Ages. But their DNA remains in the aforementioned modern Germanic and Slavic speakers, who seem to be their direct paternal descendants.