Palaeomagnetism was the method used for dating sediments older than the time span covered by AMS 14C dating. Geomagnetic palaeointensities recorded in Lake Baikal sediments were tuned to a reference curve (the record from ODP Site 984, Channell, 1999) whose chronology is well constrained (Demory et al., 2005a-this volume and Demory et al., 2005b-this volume). The palaeointensity record from ODP Site 984 is of high quality, is well dated and covers the time span of the present study. Anchored by a geomagnetic excursion (the Iceland basin event, dated at 186–189 ka according to Channell et al. (1997)), this age model is constrained by 55 correlation points for a time span of ca. 200 ky. The age models for both core sections in the interval 100–150 ky are shown in Fig. 2.