The Pleistocene–Holocene boundary and the start of the Holocene
- Date
- c. 11,700 years ago (c. 9700 BCE)
- Category
- Environment & climate
- Region
- Global
- Era
- Prehistory
- Significance
The end of the Younger Dryas marks one of the most consequential thresholds in human history: the close of the Pleistocene 'Ice Age' epoch and the beginning of the Holocene, the warm, comparatively stable interglacial in which all later civilisation developed.
The boundary is formally defined at 11,700 calibrated years before present (about 9700 BCE), pinned to a Global Stratotype Section and Point in the North Greenland Ice Core (NGRIP), where proxies record the sharp warming that terminated the Younger Dryas; the definition was ratified by the International Union of Geological Sciences in 2008. Over a few decades, global temperatures rose, ice sheets retreated, sea levels climbed and ecosystems reorganised. This new climatic stability and the spread of productive, predictable environments underpinned the near-simultaneous emergence of farming in several regions — the Fertile Crescent, China, Mesoamerica, the Andes and New Guinea — and the demographic expansion that followed. The Holocene is the geological present; recent debate over whether human impact has begun a new 'Anthropocene' epoch is measured against this boundary.
One piece of history in your inbox, weekly
New empires, events and features as they land — one good email a week. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Related environment & climate events
- End of the African Humid Period and Desertification of the Saharac. 3500–2700 BCE
- Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions and the overkill-vs-climate debatec. 15,000 – 10,000 years ago
- The 8.2-kiloyear abrupt cooling eventc. 6200 BCE
- The Last Glacial Maximum and human refugiac. 26,500 – 19,000 years ago
- The Toba super-eruption and the disputed 'volcanic winter'c. 74,000 years ago
- The Younger Dryas cold reversalc. 12,900 – 11,700 years ago
Further reading
The wider story
A New Green History of the World
The classic accessible account of how environment and climate have shaped human history.
Get it on Amazon →As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.