Three long sediment cores from the Makarov Basin have been subjected to detailed paleomagnetic and rock magnetic analyses. Investigated sediments are dominated by normal polarity including short reversal excursions, indicating that most of the sediments are of Brunhes age. In general, the recovered sediments show only low to moderate variability in concentration and grain size of the remanence-carrying minerals. Estimations of relative paleointensity variations yielded a well-documented succession of pronounced lows and highs that could be correlated to published reference curves. However, together with five accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages and an incomplete 10Be record, still two different interpretations of the paleomagnetic data are possible, with long-term sedimentation rates of either 1.3 or 4 cm kyr-1. However, both models implicate highly variable sedimentation rates of up to 10 cm kyr-1, and abrupt changes in rock magnetic parameters might even indicate several hiatuses. ¿ 2001 American Geophysical Union