We present a high-resolution paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the last five millennia from a shallow water marine sedimentary record from the central Tyrrhenian Sea (Gulf of Gaeta) using planktonic foraminifera, pollen, oxygen stable isotope, tephrostratigrapy and magnetostratigrapy. This multiproxy approach allows to evidence and characterize nine time intervals associated with archaeological/cultural periods: Eneolithic (base of the core–ca. 2410BCE), Early Bronze Age (ca. 2410BCE–ca. 1900BCE), Middle Bronze Age–Iron Age (ca. 1900BCE–ca. 500BCE), Roman Period (ca. 500BCE–ca. 550CE), Dark Age (ca. 550CE–ca. 860CE), Medieval Climate Anomaly (ca. 860CE–ca. 1250CE), Little Ice Age (ca. 1250CE–ca. 1850CE), Industrial Period (ca. 1850CE–ca. 1950CE), Modern Warm Period (ca. 1950CE–present day). The reconstructed climatic evolution in the investigated sedimentary succession is coherent with the short-term climate variability documented at the Mediterranean scale. By integrating the planktonic foraminiferal turnover from carnivorous to herbivorous–opportunistic species, the oxygen isotope record and the pollen distribution, we document important modification from the onset of the Roman Period to the present-day. From ca. 500CE upwards the documentation of the cooling trend punctuated by climate variability at secular scale evidenced by the short-term δ18O is very detailed. We hypothesise that the present day warm conditions started from the end of cold Maunder event. Additionally, we provide that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) directly affected the central Mediterranean region during the investigated time interval. •A high-resolution paleoclimate reconstruction for the last five millennia is proposed.•Planktonic foraminifera and pollen records combined with oxygen stable isotope allow us to characterize climate phases.•Oxygen isotopic record performed on Globigerinoides ruber results in phase with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).