Pollen zones are a system of subdividing the late Pleistocene and early Holocene periods of prehistory using the data from pollen cores. The sequence provides information for climatologisists and archaeologists who study the environment of the last 15,000 years.

The system was first developed by the Swedish palynologist Lennart von Post in the years before the First World War. By analysing pollen samples from cores taken through peat bogs, von Post noticed that different plant species were represented in bands through the cores. The differing species indicated differing climatic conditions which he was able to but into sequence showing fluctuations between warmer and colder periods across thousands of years. He used local peat sequences tied in with varve dating to produce a regional climatic chronology for Scandinavia.

In 1940 Harry Godwin began applying von Post's methods to pollen cores from the British Isles to produce the wider European sequence accepted today. Following the Second World War, the technique spread to the Americas. Carbon dating has provided more precise dating in the absence of varves.

There are nine main zones covering a period from around 13,000 BC to the modern day.