Dhar Walata
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The Tichitt Culture, or Tichitt Tradition, was created by
Mande peoples Mande may refer to: * Mandé peoples of western Africa * Mande languages * Manding, a term covering a subgroup of Mande peoples, and sometimes used for one of them, Mandinka * Garo people of northeastern India and northern Bangladesh * Mande River ...
. In 4000 BCE, the start of sophisticated social structure (e.g., trade of cattle as valued assets) developed among herders amid the Pastoral Period of the Sahara. Saharan pastoral culture (e.g., fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes) was intricate. By 1800 BCE, Saharan pastoral culture expanded throughout the Saharan and Sahelian regions. The initial stages of sophisticated social structure among Saharan herders served as the segue for the development of sophisticated
hierarchies A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...
found in African settlements, such as Dhar Tichitt. After migrating from the Central Sahara, Mande peoples established their civilization in the Tichitt region of the Western Sahara. The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE to 200 BCE. Tichitt culture, at Dhar Néma, Dhar Tagant, Dhar Tichitt, and Dhar Walata, included a four-tiered hierarchical social structure, farming of cereals, metallurgy, numerous
funerary A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect ...
tombs, and a rock art tradition. At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, pearl millet may have also been independently
domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...
amid the
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
. The urban Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa, and an early civilization of the Sahara, which may have served as the segue for
state formation State formation is the process of the development of a centralized government structure in a situation where one did not exist prior to its development. State formation has been a study of many disciplines of the social sciences for a number of ...
in West Africa. Consequently, state-based
urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...
in the Middle Niger and the
Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, an ...
developed between 450 CE and 700 CE.


Climate and Geography

The Dhars, or cliffs, are located in the southeastern and central-southern regions of Mauritania. The cliffs span 800 kilometers. The Dhars (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tagant) of Mauritania are located north of the Senegal River. The Dhars of Mauritania are located between the Hodh Depression and
Tagant Plateau The Tagant Plateau is located in eastern Mauritania, forming a stony part of the Sahara Desert. The Tagant Region, a national administrative division, is named after the plateau. Geography Some towns are located at the foot of the Tagant Plateau ...
. Dhar Néma and Dhar Tichitt are major
escarpments An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...
in Mauritania. From east to west, Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt, and Dhar Tagant form a semicircular shape around the Hodh/ Aoukar Depression, which, prior to 4000 BCE, was an area with lakes of considerable size, and, after 1000 BCE, was an area that had become increasingly dried. During the emergence of the Tichitt Tradition, it was an oasis area.


Tichitt cultural tradition

Between 4th millennium BCE and 1st millennium CE, pastoralists occupied the western region (e.g., Mauritania, Morocco) of the Sahara. The pastoralist culture included social stratification, as evidenced by lavish items (e.g., beads, bracelets, hachettes, lustrous stone axes) found in tumuli. In the Hodh Depression area of southern Mauritania, from early 2nd millennium to late 1st millennium BCE, the pastoralist culture developed into various forms of pre-state
urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...
(e.g., habitat patterns of nucleation and differentiation). By 2000 BCE, as aridification followed the
Holocene Climate Optimum The Holocene Climate Optimum (HCO) was a warm period that occurred in the interval roughly 9,000 to 5,000 years ago BP, with a thermal maximum around 8000 years BP. It has also been known by many other names, such as Altithermal, Climatic Optimu ...
, the pastoralists had become agropastoralists and had established the Tichitt tradition in the Mauritanian settlement areas of Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, and Dhar Néma, based on a hierarchical economy composed of pastoralism, agriculture (e.g., millet), and stonemasonry (e.g., architecture). In the Sahelian region of West Africa, the corded roulette ceramics of the Tichitt Tradition developed and persisted among dry stonewalled architecture in Mauritania (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma, Dhar Tagant) between 1900 BCE and 400 BCE. Within these settled areas (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Tagant, Dhar Walata) with stone walls, which vary in scale from (e.g., 2
hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is a ...
, 80 hectares), there were walled agricultural land used for livestock or gardening as well as land with
granaries A granary is a storehouse or room in a barn for threshed grain or animal feed. Ancient or primitive granaries are most often made of pottery. Granaries are often built above the ground to keep the stored food away from mice and other animals ...
and
tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
. As areas where the Tichitt cultural tradition were present, Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata were occupied more frequently than Dhar Néma. The eastern and central areas of Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt, which were primarily peopled between 2200/2000 BCE and 1200/1000 BCE and contained some areas (e.g., Akreijit, Chebka, Khimiya) with boundary walls, served as the primary areas of settlement (e.g., small
villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...
,
hamlets A hamlet is a human settlement that is smaller than a town or village. Its size relative to a parish can depend on the administration and region. A hamlet may be considered to be a smaller settlement or subdivision or satellite entity to a lar ...
, seasonal camps) for the Dhars of Mauritania. The fundamental unit of the Mauritanian Dhars (e.g., Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt) was the
extended family An extended family is a family that extends beyond the nuclear family of parents and their children to include aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins or other relatives, all living nearby or in the same household. Particular forms include the stem ...
or polygamous family. Based on the presence of an abundant amount of enclosed areas that may have been used to pen cattle and hundreds of tumuli, intergenerational ownership of
property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
, via cattle wealth, may have been part of the Tichitt culture. Planned, level streets spanned several hundred kilometers among the 400 drystone-constructed villages, hamlets, and towns. Primary entry points of residences with access ramps (e.g., fortified, non-fortified) and
watchtowers A watchtower or watch tower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to ...
were also present. Households used various tools (e.g., arrowheads, axes, borers, grindstones, grooved stones, needles, pendants). At Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt, stone pillars, stone slabs, and stone blocks, which approximate to several hundred in total, are frequently arranged and aligned in three rows of three; these erected stones may have served as stilts for granaries. There were also gardens and fields located within a walled enclosure ranging between nine and fourteen hectares. At Dhar Nema, there are also stilted granaries,
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...
, and tools used for milling. At Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt, copper was also used. The people of Tichitt culture crafted (e.g., arrows, arrowheads, grindstones, quartz beads, scrapers) in
workshops Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the onl ...
as well as farmed and penned livestock, fished, and hunted. A primary feature of the Tichitt culture is the shepherding of livestock and the cultivation of pearl millet. Various kinds of local food sources (e.g.,
Panicum ''Panicum'' (panicgrass) is a large genus of about 450 species of grasses native throughout the tropical regions of the world, with a few species extending into the northern temperate zone. They are often large, annual or perennial grasses, growi ...
laetum, Cenchrus biflorus, Pennisetum mollissimum; fruits from
Ziziphus lotus ''Ziziphus'' is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three promi ...
, Balanites,
Celtis ''Celtis'' is a genus of about 60–70 species of deciduous trees, commonly known as hackberries or nettle trees, widespread in warm temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The genus is part of the extended hemp family (Cannabaceae). ...
integrifolia, and Ephedra altissima;
Citrullus ''Citrullus'' is a genus of seven species of desert vines, among which ''Citrullus lanatus'' (the watermelon) is an important crop. Taxonomy Molecular data, including sequences from the original collection of ''Momordica lanata'' made near Cape ...
,
Gazella A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, '' Eudorcas'' and '' Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third ...
,
Addax nasomaculatus The addax (''Addax nasomaculatus''), also known as the white antelope and the screwhorn antelope, is an antelope native to the Sahara Desert. The monotypic taxon, only member of the genus ''Addax'', it was first described scientifically by He ...
, Oryx dammah, Mellivora capensis, Taurotragus derbianus, Kobus, Hippotragus equinus,
Tragelaphus ''Tragelaphus'' is a genus of medium- to large-sized, spiral- horned antelopes. It contains several species of bovines, all of which are relatively antelope-like. Species in this genus tend to be large in size and lightly built, and have long ne ...
, Cricetomys gambianus, Genetta genetta,
Panthera pardus The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant species in the genus ''Panthera'', a member of the cat family, Felidae. It occurs in a wide range in sub-Saharan Africa, in some parts of Western and Central Asia, Southern Russia, an ...
, Equus,
Rhinoceros A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species ...
,
Ichthyofauna Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...
, Clarias,
Tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...
,
Molluscs Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is estim ...
, Parreysia) were eaten by the people of the Tichitt culture.


Dhar Tichitt

At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, the people of the Tichitt Tradition were considerably mobile each season; they practiced animal husbandry (e.g., sheep, goat, cattle), fished, and, by at least 3600 BP,
domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...
and farmed pearl millet. However, farming of crops (e.g., millet) may have been a feature of the Tichitt cultural tradition as early as 3rd millennium BCE in Dhar Tichitt. The origin of pearl millet at Dhar Tichitt may date to 3500 BCE. Based on the hundreds of tumuli present in Dhar Tichitt, compared to a dozen tumuli present in Dhar Walata, it is likely that Dhar Tichitt was the primary center of
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
for the people of Tichitt culture. At Dhar Tichit, Dakhlet el Atrouss I, which is the largest
archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...
of the Tichitt Tradition and is 80 hectares in scale, serves as the primary regional center for the multi-tiered hierarchical social structure of Tichitt culture; it features nearly 600 settlement compounds, agropastoralism, a large enclosure for cattle, and monumental
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
as an aspect of its
funerary cult A funerary cult is a body of religious teaching and practice centered on the veneration of the dead, in which the living are thought to be able to confer benefits on the dead in the afterlife or to appease their otherwise wrathful ghosts. Rituals w ...
ure, such as hundreds of
tumuli A tumulus (plural tumuli) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or ''kurgans'', and may be found throughout much of the world. A cairn, which is a mound of stones built ...
nearby. Along with Akrejit, it also features foundations for granaries.


Rock Art

Engraved and painted Pastoral rock art relating to the agropastoralists of Dhar Tichitt, characterized by dark patina and developed using
hammerstone In archaeology, a hammerstone is a hard cobble used to strike off lithic flakes from a lump of tool stone during the process of lithic reduction. The hammerstone is a rather universal stone tool which appeared early in most regions of the wo ...
s only or hammerstones used with a lithic or metal implement, were composed of various rock artforms (e.g., humans/
herders A herder is a pastoral worker responsible for the care and management of a herd or flock of domestic animals, usually on open pasture. It is particularly associated with nomadic or transhumant management of stock, or with common land grazing. ...
, domesticated and undomesticated animals, walled compounds, symbols – cattle, oxen, two ox carts being pulled by oxen, cows with udders, a calf, sheep, goats, two large
ostriches Ostriches are large flightless birds of the genus ''Struthio'' in the order Struthioniformes, part of the infra-class Palaeognathae, a diverse group of flightless birds also known as ratites that includes the emus, rheas, and kiwis. There a ...
) that date to the Late Stone Age. Dating was confirmed by bones from a
hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
(2290±110 BP) and a few
white rhinoceros The white rhinoceros, white rhino or square-lipped rhinoceros (''Ceratotherium simum'') is the largest extant species of rhinoceros. It has a wide mouth used for grazing and is the most social of all rhino species. The white rhinoceros consists ...
(4000 BP – 2400 BP). A notable attribute of the Dhar Tichitt rock art is the large depiction of a bull, which, due to its value in agropastoral life as a form of wealth, may have had symbolic and/or religious significance for the agropastoralists of Dhar Tichitt. The painted Pastoral rock art of
Tassili n'Ajjer Tassili n'Ajjer ( Berber: ''Tassili n Ajjer'', ar, طاسيلي ناجر; "Plateau of rivers") is a national park in the Sahara desert, located on a vast plateau in southeastern Algeria. Having one of the most important groupings of prehistoric ...
, Algeria and engraved Pastoral rock art of Niger bear resemblance (e.g., color markings of the cattle) with the engraved cattle portrayed in the Dhar Tichitt rock art in Akreijit. The engraved cattle pastoral rock art of Dhar Tichitt, which are displayed in enclosed areas that may have been used to
pen A pen is a common writing instrument that applies ink to a surface, usually paper, for writing or drawing. Early pens such as reed pens, quill pens, dip pens and ruling pens held a small amount of ink on a nib or in a small void or cavity wh ...
cattle, is supportive evidence for cattle bearing ritualistic significance for the people of Dhar Tichitt.


Dhar Walata/Oualata

At Dhar Walata, in the
courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary ...
of nearby houses, enclosed, erected turriform
gardens A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...
have been found, the earliest of which dates between 1894 cal BCE and 1435 cal BCE. Hoes and fish hooks made of bone were also found. Stone slabs may have been used as a
ballast Ballast is material that is used to provide stability to a vehicle or structure. Ballast, other than cargo, may be placed in a vehicle, often a ship or the gondola of a balloon or airship, to provide stability. A compartment within a boat, ship ...
to avert the entry of animals into the village.
Reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...
and dams may have been used to manage water from nearby rivers (
wadis Wadi ( ar, وَادِي, wādī), alternatively ''wād'' ( ar, وَاد), North African Arabic Oued, is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a wet (ephemeral) riverbed that contains water o ...
). Millet, flour, and
semolina Semolina is coarsely milled durum wheat mainly used in making couscous, and sweet puddings. The term semolina is also used to designate coarse millings of other varieties of wheat, and sometimes other grains (such as rice or corn) as well. Ety ...
may have been prepared to cook porridge.


Rock Art

The Neolithic Pastoral rock art of Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt may depict chariots being drawn forward by
yoke A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, u ...
d oxen and a woman who has on a small
tunic A tunic is a garment for the body, usually simple in style, reaching from the shoulders to a length somewhere between the hips and the knees. The name derives from the Latin ''tunica'', the basic garment worn by both men and women in Ancient Rome ...
. The rock art of Dhar Walata may depict a cart being drawn forward by an ox, a man who with a tunic on that extends over part of his legs, and a man with an elongated staff that may be used as a projectile and a shield.


Human Remains

Two human skeletal remains were found at Dhar Walata. Though one is undated, based on the date of the other human skeletal remains found nearby, is dated to 3930 ± 80 BP.


Dhar Néma

In the late period of the Tichitt Tradition at Dhar Néma, domesticated pearl millet was used to temper the tuyeres of a oval-shaped low shaft furnace; this furnace was one out of 16 iron furnaces located on elevated ground.
Iron metallurgy Ferrous metallurgy is the metallurgy of iron and its alloys. The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt, were made from meteoritic iron-nickel. It is not known when or where the smelting of iron from ...
may have developed before the second half of 1st millennium BCE, as indicated by pottery dated between 800 BCE and 200 BCE.


Rock Art

The
engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...
Pastoral rock art of Dhar Néma borders Dhar Walata. The rock art of Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, and Dhar Tichitt bear cultural/artistic commonalities (e.g., cattle, engraving methods) with one another. While there are more
quadruped Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion where four limbs are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four limbs is said to be a quadruped (from Latin ''quattuor' ...
depictions than anthropomorphic depictions at Dhar Néma, there are more anthropomorphic depictions found at Dhar Nema than at Dhar Walata or Dhar Tichitt. The
Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
rock art of Dhar Néma portrays various animal depictions (e.g., cattle,
oryx ''Oryx'' is a genus consisting of four large antelope species called oryxes. Their pelage is pale with contrasting dark markings in the face and on the legs, and their long horns are almost straight. The exception is the scimitar oryx, which ...
es, giraffes), including anthropomorphic figures (e.g., men; women; man sitting on an ox with a
lasso A lasso ( or ), also called lariat, riata, or reata (all from Castilian, la reata 're-tied rope'), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the Spanish an ...
, bow, or shield; man using a throwing weapon on an oryx; man sitting on a
saddle The saddle is a supportive structure for a rider of an animal, fastened to an animal's back by a girth. The most common type is equestrian. However, specialized saddles have been created for oxen, camels and other animals. It is not k ...
d ox; person holding a basket). The depiction of the man arriving back from hunting an oryx likely occurred when the landscape was still a
savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...
, as indicated by the depiction of three trotting giraffes with a common heading. Akin to the Y-symbol associated with the hunting cultures of the Sahara and
Nile The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest ...
, the three half-lines symbol that is depicted in the Dhar Néma rock art may be associated with the hunting culture of Dhar Néma.


Human Remains

Human skeletal remains found at Bou Khzama in Dhar Néma have been dated to 3690 ± 60 BP. Another human skeletal remains found at Dhar Néma have been dated to 2095 ± 55 BP.


Dhar Tagant

At Dhar Tagant, there are approximately 276 tumuli that have been surveyed. At Dhar Tagant, there are also various geometric (e.g., rectilinear, circular) constructions, and a possible late period, involving a funerary tomb with a chapel at Foum el Hadjar from 1st millennium CE and wadis with evidence of crocodiles. As part of a broader trend of iron metallurgy developed in the West African Sahel amid 1st millennium BCE, iron items (350 BCE – 100 CE) were found at Dhar Tagant, iron metalworking and/or items (800 BCE – 400 BCE) were found at Dia Shoma and Walaldé, and the iron remnants (760 BCE – 400 BCE) found at Bou Khzama and Djiganyai. The iron materials that were found are evidence of iron metalworking at Dhar Tagant.


Legacy

The Tichitt Tradition spread to the Middle Niger region (e.g., Méma, Macina, Dia Shoma, Jenne Jeno) of Mali where it developed into and persisted as Faïta Facies ceramics between 1300 BCE and 400 BCE among
rammed earth Rammed earth is a technique for constructing foundations, floors, and walls using compacted natural raw materials such as earth, chalk, lime, or gravel. It is an ancient method that has been revived recently as a sustainable building method. ...
architecture and iron metallurgy (which had developed after 900 BCE). During the mid-1st millennium BCE, increasing desertification of the Green Sahara resulted in the migration from the Dhars (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma) of Mauritania. Some pastoralists from Dhar Tichitt may have migrated toward the southeast and other pastoralists may have migrated southward (e.g., Middle Senegal River Valley of Senegal). Dhar Néma may have served as a transitory area for the people of the Tichitt Tradition as the area of Dhar Tichitt started to become vacated by 300 BCE. From Mauritania, the people of the Tichitt Tradition may have migrated into the Malian Lakes Region, Macina, and/or Méma. In the northern areas of Macina and Mema, located in the Middle Niger, lithic items may have been brought from the Dhars (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tagant) of Mauritania. By as early as the 3rd or 4th century BCE, migrating pastoralists from Dhar Tichitt may have arrived and dwelt in the regions of the Niger Bend and
Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitic ...
. As aridification affected Lake Mega Chad, this resulted in the development of a nutrient abundant
Lake Chad Basin The Chad Basin is the largest endorheic basin in Africa, centered on Lake Chad. It has no outlet to the sea and contains large areas of semi-arid desert and savanna. The drainage basin is roughly coterminous with the sedimentary basin of the same ...
; consequently, Tichitt culture (e.g., plant materials used to stylize ceramics with a braid and twist design) may have spread into its southern region as pastoralists from Dhar Tichitt peopled the Lake Chad Basin. Some pastoralists may have also peopled the region that would eventually become the Ghana Empire as well as early
Awdaghust Aoudaghost, also transliterated as Awadaghust, Awdughast, Awdaghusht, Awdaghost, and Awdhaghurst ( ar, أودغست) is a former Berber town in Hodh El Gharbi, Mauritania. It was an important oasis town at the southern end of a trans-Saharan car ...
. In addition to complex social structure and agriculture, tumuli construction may have also spread from Tichitt, through the Inland Niger Delta, to
Dogon Country Dogon country (French: ''Pays Dogon'') is a region of eastern Mali and northwestern Burkina Faso populated mainly by the Dogon people, a diverse ethnic group in West Africa with Dogon languages, diverse languages. Like the term Serer country occup ...
. Following the Tichitt Tradition, in the 1st millennium CE, the pre-state urbanism of southern Mauritania developed into
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
-based urbanism (e.g., nucleation of peoples and regional specialization) in the
western Sudan Sudan is the geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to Central and Eastern Africa. The name derives from the Arabic ' (), or "the lands of the Black people, Blacks", referring to West Africa and northern ...
. Particularly, state-based
urbanism Urbanism is the study of how inhabitants of urban areas, such as towns and cities, interact with the built environment. It is a direct component of disciplines such as urban planning, which is the profession focusing on the physical design and ...
in the Middle Niger and the
Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadou ( ar, غانا) or Awkar, was a West African empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali that existed from c. 300 until 1100. The Empire was founded by the Soninke people, an ...
developed between 450 CE and 700 CE.


References

{{reflist History of the Sahara History of Mauritania African civilizations Neolithic cultures of Africa Archaeology of Western Africa