Overview
Haplogroup R-Y10437 represents a significant early downstream lineage within the R2a macro-structure, emerging during the broader demographic transitions that reshaped the eastern Iranian Plateau at the dawn of the Holocene. Its formation date overlaps with the consolidation of early agro-pastoral communities who blended local foraging traditions with innovation incoming from the Zagros and Central Asian oases. This pattern shapes the geographic and cultural context that likely produced the ancestors of Y10437. Modern distributions place this lineage primarily in eastern Iran, northern Afghanistan and parts of western Pakistan. This triangulation is highly characteristic of long-term population structures tied to the Helmand Basin, the Dasht-e Lut margins and the highland corridors linking these regions. These areas were centers of technological exchange, ceramic development and emerging regional identities during the Middle Neolithic through early Chalcolithic. While ancient DNA has yet to identify a direct Y10437 sample, several upstream R2a-associated remains from Iranian Chalcolithic and Helmand Basin contexts provide strong circumstantial evidence for its local antiquity. The lineage’s modern concentration in environmentally challenging yet historically stable regions suggests it persisted through multiple waves of migration without major displacement.