A paleomagnetic study of a core from the Tangle Lakes area of Alaska has provided information about the nature of secular variation between 2,700 and 4,600 years B.P. The data indicate that the amplitudes of fluctuations in inclination and declination were substantially larger than those which would be expected from the present configuration of the geomagnetic field. From this single site, it is not possible to determine whether the observed secular variation arises mainly from the dipole or the non-dipole component of the field. If the dipole component is responsible, then the data indicate that about 3,350 years B.P., the geomagnetic pole shifted by about 20¿ in a period of less than 150 years. This shift is comparable to one proposed to have occurred about 500 years ago.