Three major sea level maxima between 137 and 120 kyr B.P. are documented by surveys of pairs of wave-cut notches and other features associated with the broadly defined last interglacial coral terrace on Barbados. Regression analysis of elevation differences between notch pair members as a function of their uplift rates at seven sites yields the age difference between first and third sea stands and their eustatic sea level difference. These results, when combined with stratigraphic data from the Bahamas, Bermuda, and Western Australia and a chronology based on age limits of corals from the Bahamas and Western Australia, yield an endpoint age and eustatic low-tide elevation of 136.7 kyr B.P. and +7.4 m, respectively, for the first sea stand, 126 kyr B.P. and +5.6 m for the second, and 120.5 kyr B.P. and +3.0 m for the third. The first sea stand is the result of an anomalous deglaciation that was completed during low northern summer Milankovitch insolation. This is contrary to the Milankovitch hypothesis that orbitally controlled insolation largely determines the variations of glacial ice volume. It implies that internal factors within the Earth's climate system can be much stronger than the effects of insolation variations. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union