The Holocene corresponds with the rapid proliferation, growth, and impacts of the human species worldwide, including all of its written history, technological revolutions, development of major civilizations, and overall significant transition towards urban living in the present.

Local names for the last glacial period include the Wisconsinan in North America,[11] the Weichselian in Europe,[12] the Devensian in Britain,[13] the Llanquihue in Chile[14] and the Otiran in New Zealand.

Geologists working in different regions are studying sea levels, peat bogs, and ice-core samples, using a variety of methods, with a view toward further verifying and refining the Blytt–Sernander sequence.

[17] Though the method was once thought to be of little interest, based on 14C dating of peats that was inconsistent with the claimed chronozones,[18] investigators have found a general correspondence across Eurasia and North America.

In May 2019, members of the working group voted in favour of recognizing the Anthropocene as formal chrono-stratigraphic unit, with stratigraphic signals around the mid-twentieth century CE as its base.

Other than higher-latitude temporary marine incursions associated with glacial depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain, and cave deposits.

Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely tectonic uplift of non-glacial origin.

An equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to its present boundaries.

The temporal and spatial extent of climate change during the Holocene is an area of considerable uncertainty, with radiative forcing recently proposed to be the origin of cycles identified in the North Atlantic region.

Climate cyclicity through the Holocene (Bond events) has been observed in or near marine settings and is strongly controlled by glacial input to the North Atlantic.

[32][33][34] At the same time spectral analyses of the continental record, which is remote from oceanic influence, reveal persistent periodicities of 1,000 and 500 years that may correspond to solar activity variations during the Holocene Epoch.

[41][42] During the transition from the last glacial to the Holocene, the Huelmo–Mascardi Cold Reversal in the Southern Hemisphere began before the Younger Dryas, and the maximum warmth flowed south to north from 11,000 to 7,000 years ago.

Early anthropogenic activities such as deforestation and agriculture reinforced soil erosion, which peaked in the Middle Ages at an unprecedented level, marking human forcing as the most powerful factor affecting surface processes.

[54] North Africa, dominated by the Sahara Desert in the present, was instead a savanna dotted with large lakes during the Early and Middle Holocene,[55] regionally known as the African Humid Period (AHP).

The Early Holocene saw the advent and spread of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent—sheep, goat, cattle, and later pig were domesticated, as well as cereals, like wheat and barley, and legumes—which would later disperse into much of the world.

This 'Neolithic Revolution', likely influenced by Holocene climatic changes, included an increase in sedentism and population, eventually resulting in the world's first large-scale state societies in Mesopotamia and Egypt.

[63] During the Middle Holocene, the Intertropical Convergence Zone, which governs the incursion of monsoon precipitation through the Arabian Peninsula, shifted southwards, resulting in increased aridity.

[64] In the Middle to Late Holocene, the coastline of the Levant and Persian Gulf receded, prompting a shift in human settlement patterns following this marine regression.

[66] In Xinjiang, long-term Holocene warming increased meltwater supply during summers, creating large lakes and oases at low altitudes and inducing enhanced moisture recycling.

[67] In the Tien Shan, sedimentological evidence from Swan Lake suggests the period between 8,500 and 6,900 BP was relatively warm, with steppe meadow vegetation being predominant.

[79] Lake Huguangyan's TOC, δ13Cwax, δ13Corg, δ15N values suggest the period of peak moisture lasted from 9,200 to 1,800 BP and was attributable to a strong East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM).

[93] Ice core measurements imply that the sea surface temperature (SST) gradient east of New Zealand, across the subtropical front (STF), was around 2 degrees Celsius during the HCO.

A study utilizing five SST proxies from 37°S to 60°S latitude confirmed that the strong temperature gradient was confined to the area immediately south of the STF, and is correlated with reduced westerly winds near New Zealand.

A number of large animals including mammoths and mastodons, saber-toothed cats like Smilodon and Homotherium, and giant sloths went extinct in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.

[100] This disruption was the result of an ice dam over Hudson Bay collapsing sending cold lake Agassiz water into the North Atlantic ocean.

[101] Subsequent research, however, suggested that the discharge was probably superimposed upon a longer episode of cooler climate lasting up to 600 years and observed that the extent of the area affected was unclear.

[104] The preceding period of the Late Pleistocene had already brought advancements such as the bow and arrow, creating more efficient forms of hunting and replacing spear throwers.

Archaeological data shows that between 10,000 and 7,000 BP rapid domestication of plants and animals took place in tropical and subtropical parts of Asia, Africa, and Central America.

This form of lifestyle change allowed humans to develop towns and villages in centralized locations, which gave rise to the world known today.

Culture development and human population change, specifically in South America, has also been linked to spikes in hydroclimate resulting in climate variability in the mid-Holocene (8.2–4.2 k cal BP).