Age–depth models assign ages to sampling locations (e.g., in drill cores), making them crucial to the determined timing and pace of past changes. We present two methods to estimate age–depth models from sedimentological and stratigraphic information, resulting in richer and more empirically realistic age–depth models. As a use case, we (1)  determine the timing of the Frasnian–Famennian extinction and (2) examine the duration of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a potential deep-time analog for anthropogenic climate change.