There is an urgent need for greater understanding of the nature and causes of the fluctuations in climate that have occurred since the most recent ice age. In a world faced with a growing population and accelerating use of energy, water, and food resources, the demand for estimates of climatic change over the next few decades is pressing. This demand cannot be met at present because our knowledge of the course and causes of past climates is too limited. The instrumental records of climate variables such as temperature, pressure, and rainfall are sparse over much of the globe before the beginning of the 20th century. A few extend back two or three hundred years but these are mainly restricted to the North Atlantic sector. In order to gain some understanding of climatic variations on timescales of up to a few decades, climate records for much of the globe over several centuries are needed. Information on large-scale climatic change during the early- and pre-instrumental periods may only be established by the use of historical (documentary) and proxy climate records (Barry et al., 1979). The term “proxy climate records” describes dateable evidence of a biological or geological phenomenon whose condition is at least in part determined by climate at the time of its formation.