Overview
Haplogroup R-Y87827 is a mid-Holocene R2a lineage that split during a period of increasing contact between Southwest Asian early farmers and the pastoral cultures of Central Asia. The lineage occupies an intermediate phylogenetic position and reflects demographic processes occurring along the prehistoric cultural frontier stretching from northeastern Iran through the Kopet Dag region and into the southern Turanian basin. Modern samples of Y87827 are rare but follow a clear belt across northeastern Iran, Turkmenistan and northern Afghanistan. This distribution indicates that the lineage persisted in communities utilizing early agro-pastoral subsistence systems — a lifestyle documented archaeologically in areas such as Jeitun, Anau and contemporaneous sites. The absence of ancient samples specifically assigned to Y87827 is unsurprising due to its low frequency, but upstream R2 affiliations are firmly present in several Iranian Neolithic and Central Asian Chalcolithic individuals. These connections anchor Y87827 within the broader west–east genetic continuum of the middle Holocene.