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Abstract. Glaciers preserve climate variations in their geologicaland geomorphological records, which makes them prime candidates for climatereconstructions. Investigating the glacier–climate system over the pastmillennia is particularly relevant first because the amplitude andfrequency of natural climate variability during the Holocene provides theclimatic context against which modern, human-induced climate change must beassessed. Second, the transition from the last glacial to the currentinterglacial promises important insights into the climate system duringwarming, which is of particular interest with respect to ongoing climatechange. Evidence of stable ice margin positions that record cooling during the past12 kyr are preserved in two glaciated valleys of the Silvretta Massif in theeastern European Alps, the Jamtal (JAM) and the Laraintal (LAR). We mappedand dated moraines in these catchments including historical ridges usingberyllium-10 surface exposure dating (10Be SED) techniques andcorrelate resulting moraine formation intervals with climate proxy recordsto evaluate the spatial and temporal scale of these cold phases. The newgeochronologies indicate the formation of moraines during the early Holocene (EH), ca. 11.0 ± 0.7 ka (n = 19). Boulder ages along historical moraines (n = 6) suggest at least two glacier advances during the Little Ice Age (LIA; ca. 1250–1850 CE) around 1300 CE and in the second half of the 18th century. An earlier advance to the same position may have occurredaround 500 CE. The Jamtal and Laraintal moraine chronologies provide evidence thatmillennial-scale EH warming was superimposed by centennial-scale cooling.The timing of EH moraine formation coincides with brief temperature dropsidentified in local and regional paleoproxy records, most prominently withthe Preboreal Oscillation (PBO) and is consistent with moraine depositionin other catchments in the European Alps and in the Arctic region. Thisconsistency points to cooling beyond the local scale and therefore aregional or even hemispheric climate driver. Freshwater input sourced fromthe Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), which changed circulation patterns in theNorth Atlantic, is a plausible explanation for EH cooling and moraineformation in the Nordic region and in Europe.