The early to middle Holocene Humid Period (HHP) was the last time when precession-forced intensification of summer monsoons and northward migration of associated rainfalls led to a greening of today’s arid Saharo-Arabian desert belt. While this wet phase is well confined in N Africa and the S Arabian Peninsula, robust evidence from N Arabia is lacking. Here, we fill this gap with unprecedented annually to sub-decadally resolved proxy data from Tayma, the only known varved lake sediments in N Arabia. Based on stable isotopes, micro-facies analyses and precise varve and radiocarbon dating we distinguish five phases of lake development and prove that the wet phase in N Arabia from 8,800–7,900 years BP is considerably shorter than the commonly defined HHP (11,000–5,500 years BP). Moreover, we find a two century-long peak humidity at Tayma at times when a centennial-scale dry anomaly around 8,200 years BP interrupted the HHP in adjacent regions. This regional disparity is explained by an increased frequency of tropical plumes reaching N Arabia and compensating for the weakened monsoons and/or winter rains. This peak humidity possibly favoured Neolithic migrations into N Arabia indicating very dynamic human response to environmental changes.

Reconstructions of aeolian dust flux to West African margin sediments can be used to explore changing atmospheric circulation and hydroclimate over North Africa on millennial to orbital timescales. Here, we extend West African margin dust flux records back to 35 ka in a transect of core sites from 19°N to 27°N, and back to 67 ka at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Hole 658C, in order to explore the interplay of orbital and high-latitude forcings on North African climate and make quantitative estimates of dust flux during the core of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The ODP 658C record shows a “Green Sahara” interval from 60 to 50 ka during a time of high Northern Hemisphere summer insolation, with dust fluxes similar to levels during the early Holocene African Humid Period, and an abrupt peak in flux during Heinrich event 5a (H5a). Dust fluxes increase from 60 to 35 ka while the high-latitude Northern Hemisphere cools, with peaks in dust flux associated with North Atlantic cool events. From 35 ka through the LGM dust deposition decreases in all cores, and little response is observed to low-latitude insolation changes. Dust fluxes at sites north of 20°N were near late Holocene levels during the LGM time slice, suggesting a more muted LGM response than observed in mid-latitude dust sources. Records along the northwest African margin suggest important differences in wind responses during different stadials, with maximum dust flux anomalies centered south of 20°N during H1 and north of 20°N during the Younger Dryas.