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Archaeological surveys and excavations in the Jebel Oraf palaeolake basin, northwestern Saudi Arabia, have identified a well-preserved early-to mid-Holocene landscape. Two types of occupation site can be distinguished: nine small and ephemeral scatters from single occupation phases on the slopes of sand dunes and three hearth sites indicative of repeated occupation on palaeolake shorelines. In Highlights  Well preserved Neolithic landscape in the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia  Evidence for changes in landscape use across the transition to herding  Two lake high stands show seasonal use of the area by early pastoralists  Rock art documents the presence of wild camel in the Iron Age  Lithic industry indicative of contacts with the Levant over several millennia

We report the first findings of coexisting early Holocene H€ asseldalen and Askja-S cryptotephras in a varved sediment record in Lake Czechowskie (Poland). A time span of 152 þ11/À8 varve years between the two tephras has been revealed by differential dating through varve counting. This is in agreement within the uncertainties with calculations from radiocarbon-based age models from the non-varved H€ asseldala port record in southern Sweden, but shorter than assumed from the non-varved lake record on the Faroe Islands. We discuss possible reasons for the observed differences in duration between the two tephras and provide a revised absolute age for the Askja-S tephra of 11 228 AE 226 cal a BP based on anchoring our floating varve chronology to the absolute timescale by using the H€ asseldalen Tephra as dated in the H€ asseldala port sediments (11 380 AE 216 cal a BP). This age agrees with radiocarbon age models with larger uncertainty ranges, but is slightly older than radiocarbon-based age models with narrow uncertainty bands and is even 200-300 years older than the age reported from the Faroe Islands record. In addition to these chronological issues we discuss the possible response of the Czechowskie sediment record to the Preboreal climate oscillation.

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