Duration of last interglacial conditions in northwestern Greece.

A new astronomical calibration method for long pollen records from southern Europe is applied to the last interglacial interval of the Ioannina sequence, northwest Greece. This shows that the last interglacial in this region, as defined by the presence of forest communities, lasted c. 15,500 years, from 127,300 to 111,800 yr B.P. Interglacial conditions developed within marine isotope sub-Stage (MIS) 5e and persisted into MIS 5d, lagging changes in global ice volume.