A comprehensive record of lake level changes in the Dead Sea has been reconstructed using multiple, well dated sediment cores recovered from the Dead Sea shore. Interpreting the lake level changes as monitors of precipitation in the Dead Sea drainage area and the regional eastern Mediterranean palaeoclimate, we document the presence of two major wet phases (∼ 10–8.6 and ∼ 5.6–3.5 cal kyr BP) and multiple abrupt arid events during the Holocene. The arid events in the Holocene Dead Sea appear to coincide with major breaks in the Near East cultural evolution (at ∼ 8.6, 8.2, 4.2, 3.5 cal kyr BP). Wetter periods are marked by the enlargement of smaller settlements and growth of farming communities in desert regions, suggesting a parallelism between climate and Near East cultural development.

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We present a comprehensive summary of the available palaeoclimate records from India and compare the results from different proxies. The results indicate (i) fluctuating lake levels during the early Holocene. The period of relatively higher lake levels from increased precipitation efficiency was reached only ∼7.2–6.0 cal kyr BP, possibly due to increased contribution from winter rainfall; (ii) the onset of aridity in NW India could have begun as early as ∼5.3 cal kyr BP. Subsequently, there were multiple wet events but of shorter duration and smaller magnitude than during the mid Holocene; (iii) there is evidence of several short term climate events in the proxy record. However, in the absence of a rigorous chronological framework a detailed regional correlation is not possible at this stage. Finally, a comparison between marine and terrestrial records indicates that episodes of strongest and weakest monsoon winds were not always associated with wettest and driest episodes respectively in the NW Indian lakes.