That depends, if you consider the Alarodian link, J1* surely was a major marker.
Which is precisely why Hurro-Urartian provides a stunning link with Northeast Caucasian, the link between those two is primarly J1* with J2a4b* for the Nakh speakers... But, as Dienekes hypothesized, proto-Northeast Caucasian speakers most likely were J1* positive men.
That is because you still think that the Northeast Caucasus was peopled by J1 men in ancient times. I am convinced that it isn't the case. The polygamy thing is enough to spread one Y-haplogroup like a bushfire (in genealogical terms, within a few centuries, or a millennia at most). The Caucasus region has ethnic groups that are predominantly J1, others that are J2, others G2a, and others still that are quite mixed. Yet, autosomal comparisons show very little differences between them.
The K=12 admixtures from the Dodecad don't show any significant difference of 'West Asian' among the Dagestani (Lezgins, Urkarah, Stalskoe), Armenians, Abhkazians, Georgians, Ossetians, Adygei, Chechens or even Iranians, despite having completely different Y-DNA. What differentiate them are the percentages of West European (highest in the Dagestani, lowest in the Chechens), East European (higher in the North Caucasus) and Mediterranean (higher in the South Caucasus). There is a clearer Y-DNA correlation there, as populations with higher West European have more R1b, those with higher East European have more R1a. No correlation with the Mediterranean admixture though (probably because it doesn't match any single haplogroup).
The
Eurasia7 calculator shows even stronger similarities between all Caucasian populations.
Here is what we have :
- Caucasians are very close autosomally, yet so divergent in Y-DNA frequencies
- many populations have extremely high frequencies of a single haplogroup (54% of G2a for the Adygei, 84% of J1 for the Dargins, 88% of J2 for the Ingush)
- there is little haplogroup diversity, especially among ethnic groups where one haplogroup exceeds 50% of the lineages.
What can this all mean ? In my opinion, it almost certainly means that local chieftains/kings have spread their own Y-DNA among their ethnic group for a few centuries. There might have been a lot of different haplogroup before that happened, as attested by larger populations (Georgians, Armenians, Azeri).