The Holocene is the current interglacial period of the Quaternary ice age.
It began about 11,700 years ago, after the end of the Last Glacial Period and the abrupt climatic episode known as the Younger Dryas. In the geological time scale, the Holocene is the current epoch and follows the Pleistocene. Together, the two epochs make up the Quaternary Period.
“Interglacial” does not mean that the Quaternary ice age has ended. It describes a relatively warm interval between major glacial periods. Large ice sheets still cover Antarctica and Greenland, and Earth remains within a long-term cycle of glacial advances and retreats influenced partly by changes in its orbit and axial orientation.
The Holocene includes the development of agriculture, cities, and recorded civilizations, but its definition is geological rather than cultural. The Pleistocene was the preceding epoch, while the Eemian was an earlier interglacial that occurred before the last ice age. The Pliocene predates the Quaternary entirely.