Abstract Palaeomagnetic and palaeoenvironmental data from Indonesia and particularly from the Island of Sulawesi are scarce and exact dating has turned out to be a challenge in many archives from this region. Here we outline difficulties in radiocarbon dating of the palaeoenvironmental record from Lake Kalimpaa, Sulawesi, Indonesia. These difficulties demand the integration of additional parameters to obtain a reliable chronology for this record. Thus, we compare the palaeomagnetic secular variation data from this record with the CALS3k.4 spherical harmonic geomagnetic model of the 0–3 ka field ( Korte & Constable 2011 ). The resulting age–depth model for the Lake Kalimpaa sequence provides a profound basis for further multi-proxy investigations on this record. For the first time, high-resolution palaeomagnetic secular variation data continuously spanning the past 1300 years are presented for this region, which complement existing records with lower temporal resolution or records missing the top-most sections.