Overview
Haplogroup R-Y30 is a significant early Holocene branch within the R-M73 lineage and provides insight into ancient demographic layers that predate the pastoralist expansion of the Bronze Age. Its formation during the mid-Holocene places it among the paternal lines associated with mobile forager communities in the Minusinsk Basin and the forest-steppe regions of central Siberia. The phylogenetic development of Y30 indicates that it formed within groups undergoing gradual shifts from purely foraging subsistence toward mixed economies involving localized resource management. Archaeogenetic evidence from central Siberia suggests continuity between Mesolithic and Neolithic foragers, and Y30’s structure reflects these persistent cultural and demographic patterns. Its branches show moderate geographic structuring, implying early fragmentation into small, regionally stable clans or extended kin groups. Today, Y30 is rare but occurs in southwestern Siberia, the upper Yenisei region, and scattered parts of northern Mongolia. Its distribution aligns with early Holocene cultural zones characterized by composite hunter-fisher traditions and later interaction with Bronze Age steppe groups without being fully absorbed by them. Y30 remains a valuable lineage for reconstructing the deep population history of the Inner Asian forest-steppe corridor.