{{short description|Earliest West African Civilization}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2022}} {{Infobox archaeological culture|name=Tichitt culture|map=Homme muni d’un bâton, et vaches à robe marquée du village v.72.jpg|mapalt=|region=Mauritania|period=Neolithic|dates=2200 BCE to 500 BCE}} The '''Tichitt tradition''',<ref name="Kea" /><ref name="Linares-Matás" /> or '''Tichitt culture''',<ref name="McDougall" /><ref name="Maley">{{cite journal |last1=Maley |first1=Jean |last2=Vernet |first2=Robert |date=July 2015 |title=Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281068313 |journal=African Archaeological Review |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=215–216 |doi=10.1007/S10437-015-9190-Y |issn=0263-0338 |jstor=43916734 |oclc=5858363395 |s2cid=163024833}}</ref> was created by proto-Mande peoples,<ref name="Abd-El-Moniem">{{cite book |last1=Abd-El-Moniem |first1=Hamdi Abbas Ahmed |title=A New Recording of Mauritanian Rock Art |date=May 2005 |url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444476/1/U591781.pdf |page=210 |publisher=University of London |s2cid=130112115 |oclc=500051500}}</ref> namely the ancestors of the Soninke people.<ref name="Neolithic">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, ( ca. 4000–2300 BP) |journal=Comptes Rendus Geoscience |date=August 2009 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248548075 |pages=703–712 |volume=341 |issue=8–9 |doi=10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005}}</ref><ref name="HollA11985">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hall A | title = Background to the Ghana Empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania) | journal = Journal of Anthropological Archaeology | date = 1985 | volume = 4 | issue = 2 |url = https://www.academia.edu/2558381 | doi = 10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 | page = 108 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Brass">{{cite journal |last1=Brass |first1=Michael |title=The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara |date=June 2019 |volume=17 |issue=1 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334154351 |journal=Journal of African Archaeology |page=3 |doi=10.1163/21915784-20190003 |s2cid=198759644 |oclc=8197260980}}</ref> Saharan pastoral culture (e.g., fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes) was intricate.<ref name="Brass II">{{cite journal |last1=Brass |first1=Michael |title=Reconsidering the emergence of social complexity in early Saharan pastoral societies, 5000 – 2500 B.C. |journal=Sahara (Segrate, Italy) |year=2007 |volume=18 |pages=7–22 |publisher=Sahara (Segrate)|pmid=24089595 |pmc=3786551 |s2cid=13912749 |issn=1120-5679 |oclc=6923202386}}</ref> By 1800 BCE, Saharan pastoral culture expanded throughout the Saharan and Sahelian regions.<ref name="Brass" /> The initial stages of sophisticated social structure among Saharan herders served as the segue for the development of sophisticated hierarchies found in African settlements, such as Dhar Tichitt.<ref name="Brass" /> After migrating from the Central Sahara, proto-Mande peoples established their civilization in the Tichitt region<ref name="Abd-El-Moniem" /> of the Western Sahara.<ref name="Kea" /> The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE<ref name="McDougall" /><ref name="Holl" /> to 200 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald IV" /><ref name="Kay" />
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 tombs, and a rock art tradition.<ref name="Sterry" /> At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, pearl millet may have also been independently domesticated amid the Neolithic.<ref name="Champion" /> Dhar Tichitt, which includes Dakhlet el Atrouss, may have served as the primary regional center for the multi-tiered hierarchical social structure of the Tichitt Tradition,<ref name="Linares-Matás" /> and the Malian Lakes Region, which includes Tondidarou, may have served as a second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition.<ref name="Vernet" /> The settlements of Dhar Tichitt consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing houses and granaries/"storage facilities", sometimes with street layouts.<ref name="Holl" /><ref name="Holl IV">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin |title=Background to the Ghana Empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania) |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |date=1985 |volume=4 |issue=2 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2558381 |doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 |page=108}}</ref> Additionally, around some settlements, larger stone common "circumvallation walls" were built, suggesting that "special purpose groups" cooperated as a result of decisions "enforced for the benefit of the community as a whole."<ref name="Holl" /><ref name="Holl IV" /> The urban<ref name="Kea" /> Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa,<ref name="MacDonald II" /> and an early civilization of the Sahara,<ref name="McDougall" /><ref name="Abd-El-Moniem" /> which may have served as the segue for state formation in West Africa.<ref name="Brass II" /> Consequently, state-based urbanism in the Middle Niger and the Ghana Empire developed between the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.<ref name="MacDonald II" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Gestrich |first=Nikolas |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396 |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |chapter=Ghana Empire |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.396}}</ref>
==Climate and geography== thumb|200px|Geography of Tichitt culture
The Dhars, or cliffs, are located in the southeastern and central-southern regions of Mauritania.<ref name="Maurer">{{cite journal |last1=Maurer |first1=Anne-France |display-authors=etal |title=Bone diagenesis in arid environments: An intra-skeletal approach |date=15 December 2014 |volume=416 |page=18 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281268982 |journal=Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology |doi=10.1016/J.PALAEO.2014.08.020 |s2cid=129292169 |issn=0031-0182 |oclc=5901261079 |bibcode=2014PPP...416...17M}}</ref> The cliffs span 800 kilometers.<ref name="Maurer" /> The Dhars (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tagant) of Mauritania are located north of the Senegal River.<ref name="MacDonald III">{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin C. |title=A View from the South: Sub-Saharan Evidence for Contacts between North Africa, Mauritania and the Niger, 1000 BC–AD 700 |date=2011 |url=https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/pluginfile.php/547853/course/summary/Money_Trade_and_Trade_Routes_online.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210512161545/https://moodle2.sscnet.ucla.edu/pluginfile.php/547853/course/summary/Money_Trade_and_Trade_Routes_online.pdf |archive-date=12 May 2021 |publisher=British Museum Press |page=73 |s2cid=134384684 |isbn=978-0-86159-176-3 |issn=1747-3640 |oclc=678476323}}</ref> The Dhars of Mauritania are located between the Hodh Depression and Tagant Plateau.<ref name="Linares-Matás">{{cite journal |last1=Linares-Matás |first1=Gonzalo J. |title=Spatial Organization and Socio-Economic Differentiation at the Dhar Tichitt Center of Dakhlet el Atrouss I (Southeastern Mauritania) |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=13 April 2022 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=167–188 |doi=10.1007/s10437-022-09479-5 |issn=1572-9842 |oclc=9530792981 |s2cid=248132575|doi-access=free }}</ref> Dhar Néma and Dhar Tichitt are major escarpments in Mauritania.<ref name="Naia">{{cite book |last1=Naia |first1=Marisa |last2=Brito |first2=José Carlos |title=Geographical Atlas of Mauritania |date=January 2021 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348370558 |publisher=CIBIO/InBIO |page=6}}</ref> 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.<ref name="MacDonald II">{{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin C. |last2=Vernet |first2=Robert |last3=Martinon-Torres |first3=Marcos |last4=Fuller |first4=Dorian Q |title=Dhar Néma: From early agriculture to metallurgy in southeastern Mauritania |date=April 2009 |volume=44 |issue=1 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232873688 |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |pages=3–4, 42 |doi=10.1080/00671990902811330 |s2cid=111618144 |issn=0067-270X |oclc=4901241515}}</ref> During the emergence of the Tichitt Tradition, it was an oasis area.<ref name="MacDonald II" />
After 4500 BP, the Malian Lakes Region, around Lake Fati, underwent aridification; thereafter, Megalake Timbuktu, which at its height reached depths of 264 meters in 3900 BP, developed from the inputs of the Middle Niger riverine system.<ref name="Vernet">{{cite journal |last1=Vernet |first1=Robert |last2=Gestrich |first2=Nikolas |last3=Coutros |first3=Peter R. |title=The Tichitt Culture and the Malian Lakes Region |journal=African Archaeological Review |date=27 September 2023 |doi=10.1007/s10437-023-09554-5 |s2cid=263182276 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10437-023-09554-5|doi-access=free }}</ref> In the region, humidity reached its highest point in the first half of the 4th millennium BP, and reached its second highest point in the second half of the 4th millennium BP.<ref name="Vernet" /> More than one thousand stone villages were constructed, which spans 800 kilometers from the Niger Bend to the region northward of Taoudenni Basin, as well as spanning 600,000 km2 from the border of Mali and Mauritania to the region west of Tagant.<ref name="Vernet" /> In the Malian Lakes Region, which is located in northwestern Inland Niger Delta region of the Niger River, near Lake Faguibine and the Faguibine Depression, and north of Méma, these drystone constructed stone-walled settlement sites may be connected with the Tichitt Tradition of Mauritania.<ref name="Vernet" />
thumb|200px|Tichitt culture of Mauritania and the Malian Lakes Region
==Tichitt cultural tradition==
Between 4th millennium BCE and 1st millennium CE, pastoralists occupied the western region (e.g., Mauritania, Morocco) of the Sahara.<ref name="Monroe">{{cite journal |last1=Monroe |first1=J. Cameron |title="Elephants for Want of Towns": Archaeological Perspectives on West African Cities and Their Hinterlands |url=https://www.academia.edu/35127116 |journal=Journal of Archaeological Research |year=2018 |volume=26 |issue=4 |page=395 |doi=10.1007/s10814-017-9114-2 |s2cid=149031750 |jstor=44984078 |issn=1059-0161 |oclc=7848239424}}</ref> The pastoralist culture included social stratification, as evidenced by lavish items (e.g., beads, bracelets, hachettes, lustrous stone axes) found in tumuli.<ref name="Monroe" /> 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 (e.g., habitat patterns of nucleation and differentiation).<ref name="Monroe" /> By 2000 BCE, as aridification followed the Holocene Climate Optimum, 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).<ref name="Monroe" /> In the Sahelian region of West Africa, the corded roulette ceramics of the Tichitt Tradition developed and persisted among<ref name="MacDonald" /> dry stonewalled architecture<ref name="MacDonald" /><ref name="Linares-Matás" /> in Mauritania (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma, Dhar Tagant) between 1900 BCE and 400 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald">{{cite journal |last1=MacDonald |first1=K.C. |title=Betwixt Tichitt and the IND: the pottery of the Faita Facies, Tichitt Tradition |date=April 2011 |url=https://dokumen.tips/documents/betwixt-tichitt-and-the-ind-the-pottery-of-the-faita-facies-tichitt-tradition.html |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |volume=46 |pages=49, 51, 54, 56–57, 59–60 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2011.553485 |s2cid=161938622 |issn=0067-270X |oclc=4839360348|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Within these settled areas (e.g., Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Tagant, Dhar Walata) with stone walls, which vary in scale from (e.g., 2 hectares, 80 hectares), there were walled agricultural land used for livestock or gardening as well as land with granaries and tumuli.<ref name="Kay">{{cite journal |last1=Kay |first1=Andrea U. |title=Diversification, Intensification and Specialization: Changing Land Use in Western Africa from 1800 BC to AD 1500 |url=https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-019-09131-2 |journal=Journal of World Prehistory |year=2019 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=179–228 |doi=10.1007/s10963-019-09131-2 |s2cid=134223231 |hdl=10261/181848 |hdl-access=free |issn=0892-7537 |oclc=8112065264}}</ref>
thumb|200px|Small jar
As areas where the Tichitt cultural tradition were present, Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata were occupied more frequently than Dhar Néma.<ref name="MacDonald II" /> 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, hamlets, seasonal camps) for the Dhars of Mauritania.<ref name="Holl">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin F.C. |title=Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, (ca. 4000–2300 BP) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631071309000996 |journal=Comptes Rendus Geoscience |year=2009 |volume=341 |issue=8–9 |page=703 |doi=10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005 |s2cid=128545688 |issn=1631-0713 |oclc=5900121710 |bibcode=2009CRGeo.341..703H|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The fundamental unit of the Mauritanian Dhars (e.g., Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt) was the extended family<ref name="Holl II">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin F. C. |title=Dhar Tichitt, Walata and Nema |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.openedition.org%2Fnda%2F1584 |journal=Les Nouvelles de l'Archéologie |date=2012 |volume=127 |issue=127 |pages=35–39 |doi=10.4000/NDA.1584 |s2cid=194063851 |issn=0242-7702 |oclc=8207522523|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or polygamous family.<ref name="Monroe" /> 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, via cattle wealth, may have been part of the Tichitt culture.<ref name="Monroe" /> Planned, level streets spanned several hundred kilometers among the 400 drystone-constructed villages, hamlets, and towns.<ref name="Kea">{{cite journal |last1=Kea |first1=Ray |title=Expansions and Contractions: World-Historical Change And The Western Sudan World-System (1200/1000 B.C. – 1200/1250 A.D.) |date=26 November 2004 |volume=X |issue=3 |pages=738–740 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/208574355 |journal=Journal of World-Systems Research |doi=10.5195/JWSR.2004.286 |issn=1076-156X |s2cid=147397386|doi-access=free }}</ref> Primary entry points of residences with access ramps (e.g., fortified, non-fortified) and watchtowers were also present.<ref name="Kea" /> Households used various tools (e.g., arrowheads, axes, borers, grindstones, grooved stones, needles, pendants).<ref name="Kea" /> 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.<ref name="Dupuy">{{cite journal |last1=Dupuy |first1=Christian |title=Cereals and milk in the Sahara and the Sahel, from the epipaleolithic to the age of metals |date=2014 |volume=5 |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.openedition.org%2Fafriques%2F1376 |journal=Afriques. Débats, Méthodes et Terrains d'Histoire |doi=10.4000/AFRIQUES.1376 |s2cid=160853354 |oclc=6733603235|doi-access=free }}</ref> There were also gardens and fields located within a walled enclosure ranging between nine and fourteen hectares.<ref name="Dupuy" /> At Dhar Nema, there are also stilted granaries, pottery, and tools used for milling.<ref name="Dupuy" /> At Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt, copper was also used.<ref name="Kea" /> Tichitt culture may have also made cultural contributions (e.g., architecture, ceramics) to Garamantian culture, which was then subsequently reconstrued and innovated by Garamantes as these contributions were incorporated into Garamantian culture.<ref name="Mori">{{cite book |last1=Mori |first1=Lucia |display-authors=etal |title=Life and death at Fewet |date=October 2013 |page=381 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265066473 |publisher=Edizioni All'Insegna del Giglio |doi=10.1400/220016 |s2cid=159219731 |isbn=978-88-7814-594-8 |oclc=881264296}}</ref>
The people of Tichitt culture crafted (e.g., arrows, arrowheads, grindstones, quartz beads, scrapers) in workshops as well as farmed and penned livestock, fished, and hunted.<ref name="Kea" /> A primary feature of the Tichitt culture is the shepherding of livestock and the cultivation of pearl millet.<ref name="Linares-Matás" /> Various kinds of local food sources (e.g., Panicum laetum, Cenchrus biflorus, Pennisetum mollissimum; fruits from Ziziphus lotus, Balanites, Celtis integrifolia, and Ephedra altissima; Citrullus, Gazella, Addax nasomaculatus, Oryx dammah, Mellivora capensis, Taurotragus derbianus, Kobus, Hippotragus equinus, Tragelaphus, Cricetomys gambianus, Genetta genetta, Panthera pardus, Equus, Rhinoceros, Ichthyofauna, Clarias, Tilapia, Molluscs, Parreysia) were eaten by the people of the Tichitt culture.<ref name="Amblard-Pison">{{cite journal |last1=Amblard-Pison |first1=Sylvie |title=Between sands and stones: eating and drinking in the Neolithic villages of a Saharan refuge area in south-eastern Mauritania |date=2014 |volume=5 |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.openedition.org%2Fafriques%2F1496 |journal=Afriques. Débats, Méthodes et Terrains d'Histoire |doi=10.4000/AFRIQUES.1496 |s2cid=190294373|doi-access=free }}</ref>
[[File:Un aspect du village v.72, Dhar Tichitt-Oualata.jpg|thumb|300px|Aspect of a village]]
<gallery> File:Haches et herminettes provenant de villages du Dhar Tichitt.jpg|Stone axes from Dhar Tichitt File:NouakchottNationalMuseum5.jpg|Lithics associated with the Tichitt culture File:Meule sur un site du Baten de Tichitt.jpg|Grinding stone </gallery>
===Dhar Tichitt=== {{Main|Dhar Tichitt}}
At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, the people of the Tichitt Tradition were considerably mobile each season; they practiced animal husbandry<ref name="Kay" /> (e.g., sheep, goat, cattle),<ref name="Holl" /> fished,<ref name="Kay" /> and, by at least 3600 BP, domesticated and farmed pearl millet.<ref name="Kay" /><ref name="D'Andre">{{cite journal |last1=D'Andre |first1=A.C. |display-authors=etal |title=Archaeobotanical evidence for pearl millet (Pennisefum glaucum) in sub-Saharan West Africa |date=2001 |volume=75 |issue=288 |url=https://doc.rero.ch/record/291861/files/S0003598X00060993.pdf |journal=Antiquity |page=346 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00060993 |s2cid=162137155}}</ref> 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.<ref name="MacDonald II" /> The origin of pearl millet at Dhar Tichitt may date to 3500 BCE.<ref name="Shivhare">{{cite journal |last1=Shivhare |first1=Radha |last2=Lata |first2=Charu |title=Exploration of Genetic and Genomic Resources for Abiotic and Biotic Stress Tolerance in Pearl Millet |journal=Frontiers in Plant Science |date=23 January 2017 |volume=7 |doi=10.3389/fpls.2016.02069 |pmid=28167949 |issn=1664-462X |pmc=5253385 |oclc=6942015845 |s2cid=16369778 |doi-access=free }}</ref> At Dhar Tichitt, domesticated pearl millet imprints in pottery have been dated between 1900 BCE and 1500 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald V" /> 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 for the people of Tichitt culture.<ref name="Monroe" />
At Dhar Tichit, Dakhlet el Atrouss I, which is the largest archaeological site 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 as an aspect of its funerary culture, such as hundreds of tumuli nearby.<ref name="Linares-Matás" /> Along with Akrejit, it also features foundations for granaries.<ref name="Linares-Matás" />
====Rock Art====
Engraved and painted Pastoral rock art relating to the agropastoralists of Dhar Tichitt, characterized by dark patina and developed using hammerstones only or hammerstones used with a lithic or metal implement, were composed of various rock artforms (e.g., humans/herders, 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) that date to the Late Stone Age.<ref name="Holl XX">{{cite journal |last1=Holl |first1=Augustin F. C. |title=Time, Space, and Image Making:Rock Art from the Dhar Tichitt (Mauritania) |date=June 2002 |volume=19 |issue=2 |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/43991/10437_2004_Article_373030.pdf |journal=African Archaeological Review |pages=79–80, 83, 92–93, 100–101, 116 |doi=10.1023/A:1015479826570 |jstor=25130740 |hdl=2027.42/43991 |s2cid=54741966 |issn=0263-0338 |oclc=359124322}}</ref> Dating was confirmed by bones from a hippopotamus (2290±110 BP) and a few white rhinoceros (4000 BP – 2400 BP).<ref name="Holl XX" /> 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.<ref name="Holl XX" /> The painted Pastoral rock art of Tassili n'Ajjer, 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.<ref name="Smith">{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Andrew |title=Encyclopedia of Prehistory Volume 1: Africa |chapter=Saharo-Sudanese Neolithic |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4615-1193-9_19 |year=2001 |page=251 |publisher=Encyclopedia of Prehistory |doi=10.1007/978-1-4615-1193-9_19 |isbn=978-0-306-46255-9 |s2cid=127574765 |oclc=852789668}}</ref> The engraved cattle pastoral rock art of Dhar Tichitt, which are displayed in enclosed areas that may have been used to pen cattle, is supportive evidence for cattle bearing ritualistic significance for the people of Dhar Tichitt.<ref name="Smith" />
[[File:Char rupestre du village v.157 à longue plate-forme (103 x 50 cm).jpg|thumb|200px|Rock art depicting cart, with long platform, framed by two wheels]]
===Dhar Walata/Oualata===
At Dhar Walata, in the courtyard of nearby houses, enclosed, erected turriform gardens have been found, the earliest of which dates between 1894 cal BCE and 1435 cal BCE.<ref name="Amblard-Pison" /> Hoes and fish hooks made of bone were also found.<ref name="Amblard-Pison" /> Stone slabs may have been used as a ballast to avert the entry of animals into the village.<ref name="Amblard-Pison" /> Reservoirs and dams may have been used to manage water from nearby rivers (wadis).<ref name="Amblard-Pison" /> Millet, flour, and semolina may have been prepared to cook porridge.<ref name="Amblard-Pison" /> At Dhar Walata, domesticated pearl millet imprints in pottery have been dated between 1900 BCE and 1500 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald V" />
[[File:Murs de barrage sur les pentes du Dhar Oualata, à proximité d’un petit village.jpg|thumb|200px|Dam walls on the slopes of Dhar Walata]]
====Rock Art====
The Neolithic Pastoral rock art of Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt may depict chariots being drawn forward by yoked oxen and a woman who has on a small tunic.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II">{{cite journal |last1=Amblard-Pison |first1=Sylvie |display-authors=etal |title=The anthropomorphic rock engravings of Dhar Nema |date=2010 |volume=6 |pages=67–84 |url=https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fjournals.openedition.org%2Faaa%2F710 |journal=Afrique: Archéologie & Arts |doi=10.4000/AAA.710 |s2cid=192939738|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" />
====Human Remains====
Two human skeletal remains were found at Dhar Walata.<ref name="Maurer" /> Though one is undated, based on the date of the other human skeletal remains found nearby, is dated to 3930 ± 80 BP.<ref name="Maurer" />
===Dhar Néma===
In the late period of the Tichitt Tradition at Dhar Néma, domesticated pearl millet was used to temper the tuyeres of an oval-shaped low shaft furnace; this furnace was one out of 16 iron furnaces located on elevated ground.<ref name="MacDonald IV">{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=K. |last2=Vernet |first2=R. |title=Fields of Change: Progress in African Archaeobotany |date=2007 |publisher=Barkhuis |location=Netherlands |pages=71–72 |isbn=978-90-77922-30-9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gTnffH-elc0C&q=%22Tichitt%22+%22metallurgy%22&pg=PA71 |chapter=Early domesticated pearl millet in Dhar Nema (Mauritania): evidence of crop processing waste as ceramic temper |s2cid=130234059 |oclc=309688961}}</ref> Iron metallurgy may have developed before the second half of 1st millennium BCE, as indicated by pottery dated between 800 BCE and 200 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald IV" /> At Dhar Nema, domesticated pearl millet imprints in pottery have been dated between 1750 BCE and 1500 BCE.<ref name="MacDonald V">{{cite book |last1=MacDonald |first1=Kevin |last2=Champion |first2=Louis |last3=Manning |first3=Katie |title=Winds of Change: Archaeological Contributions in Honour of Peter Breunig |date=March 2018 |publisher=Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt |isbn=978-3-7749-4074-1 |page=172 |chapter-url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10048844/1/MacDonald%20et%20al%202017_FArS35-FS%20Breunig.pdf |chapter=Windé Koroji Ouest (Mali, Third and Second Millennia BCE): The Environmental and Subsistence Evidence |oclc=1012394569}}</ref>
====Rock Art====
The engraved Pastoral rock art of Dhar Néma borders Dhar Walata.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" /> The rock art of Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, and Dhar Tichitt bear cultural/artistic commonalities (e.g., cattle, engraving methods) with one another.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" /> While there are more quadruped depictions than anthropomorphic depictions at Dhar Néma, there are more anthropomorphic depictions found at Dhar Nema than at Dhar Walata or Dhar Tichitt.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" />
The Neolithic rock art of Dhar Néma portrays various animal depictions (e.g., cattle, oryxes, giraffes), including anthropomorphic figures (e.g., men; women; man sitting on an ox with a lasso, bow, or shield; man using a throwing weapon on an oryx; man sitting on a saddled ox; person holding a basket).<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" /> The depiction of the man arriving back from hunting an oryx likely occurred when the landscape was still a savanna, as indicated by the depiction of three trotting giraffes with a common heading.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" /> Akin to the Y-symbol associated with the hunting cultures of the Sahara and Nile, the three half-lines symbol that is depicted in the Dhar Néma rock art may be associated with the hunting culture of Dhar Néma.<ref name="Amblard-Pison II" />
====Human Remains====
Human skeletal remains found at Bou Khzama in Dhar Néma have been dated to 3690 ± 60 BP.<ref name="Maurer" /> Another human skeletal remains found at Dhar Néma have been dated to 2095 ± 55 BP.<ref name="Maurer" />
===Dhar Tagant===
At Dhar Tagant, there are approximately 276 tumuli that have been surveyed.<ref name="Lim">{{cite book |last1=Lim |first1=J |title=Geometric data for tumuli in Dhar Tagant, Mauritania |chapter=Archaeology |chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:77740928-4f32-478c-924d-09ceeb61f75d |year=2020 |publisher=University of Oxford |doi=10.5287/BODLEIAN:NRYV1OB2R |s2cid=236798102}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Sterry">{{cite book |last1=Sterry |first1=Martin |last2=Mattingly |first2=David J. |title=Urbanisation and State Formation in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond |date=26 March 2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=318 |isbn=978-1-108-49444-1 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B9PKDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Tichitt+culture%22&pg=PR8 |chapter=Pre-Islamic Oasis Settlements in the Southern Sahara |doi=10.1017/9781108637978.008 |s2cid=243375056 |oclc=1128066278}}</ref> 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.<ref name="MacDonald II" /> The iron materials that were found are evidence of iron metalworking at Dhar Tagant.<ref name="Kay" />
While confirmation of the connection is still needed, Tabarit East tumuli of western Tagant are similar in form to Tichitt Tradition tumuli.<ref name="Lim II">{{cite journal |last1=Lim |first1=Jonathan S. |last2=Matás |first2=Gonzalo J. Linares |title=Dunes, death, and datasets: Modelling funerary monument construction in remote arid landscapes using spaceborne stereo imagery |journal=Journal of Archaeological Science |date=August 2023 |volume=156 |article-number=105815 |doi=10.1016/j.jas.2023.105815 |bibcode=2023JArSc.156j5815L |s2cid=259238156|doi-access=free }}</ref> In southeastern Mauritania, there are more than 9000 tumuli; the monument-building techniques of this funerary tradition resulted in tumuli being able to persist in form for millennia to the present-day.<ref name="Lim II" /> While smaller tumuli may have been built by members of the nuclear family, larger tumuli may have been built by members of nuclear and extended family.<ref name="Lim II" />
<gallery> File:Tichitt Tradition drystone tumulus.jpg|Tichitt Tradition drystone tumulus File:Two types of prehistoric funerary monuments in the Dhar Tagant region of south-eastern Mauritania.jpg|Two types of prehistoric funerary monuments in the Dhar Tagant region of south-eastern Mauritania File:T150, a double-walled settlement on the flat plateau edge of the Dhar Tagant escarpment.jpg|T150, a double-walled settlement on the flat plateau edge of the Dhar Tagant escarpment </gallery>
===Malian Lakes Region===
thumb|200px|Stone pillar structure at Fati 6
The Malian Lakes Region may have served as the second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition.<ref name="Vernet" /> In the Malian Lakes Region, there is a drystone enclosure that is greater than 4 meters in height and several hundred meters in circumference, two cemeteries, and within the enclosure, a possible cistern building with remnants of a room that is between 6 meters and 7 meters in diameter; there are also other drystone structures of different sizes and kinds, which include a large rectangular enclosure, enclosures with small-sized circular structures, a carved stone as part of a broader system of structures, stone walls, as well as cemeteries with stones positioned in the head and foot areas of the graves.<ref name="Vernet" /> Additionally, there are stones that are 2 meters in diameter are set within circular patterns are found among a few stone structures, grindstone and millstone remnants, and pottery with decorative patterns.<ref name="Vernet" /> Within the region, nearby Tondidarou, a stone wall may have served as a regional boundary, stone tumuli and circles that may be cemeteries, and a couple of drystone fortification remnants; there are also pottery and stone tools at Mobangou, as well as mounds and stone structures nearby Mobangou.<ref name="Vernet" /> On the eastern side of Lake Fati, there are large enclosures on the massifs containing dozens of conjoined circular drystone structures, and on the eastern side of Lake Faguibine, there are similar enclosures and structures spanning 74 kilometers north from its eastern shoreside; there are also stone walls ranging about one meter in height.<ref name="Vernet" />
The Malian Lakes Region sites share connections with Tichitt Tradition sites via one of its categorized sites.<ref name="Vernet" /> Tell-type site pottery of the Malian Lakes Region also is similar in appearance (e.g., folded strip roulettes, thickened rims) to Faïta pottery.<ref name="Vernet" /> In total, there are 180 villages, hamlets, and many types of stone structures and enclosures.<ref name="Vernet" /> Among the total constructed stone villages, 30 stone villages may have evidence of concessions with stone pillar structures in them; there is also Fati 6 where a drystone tell is of an intermediary architectural status between the earlier drystone structures in the escarpment region and the later drystone structures of the Tondidarou region; both show close resemblance and apparent connection with the architectural structures of the Tichitt culture.<ref name="Vernet" /> The Malian Lakes Region and the Mauritanian Tichitt cultural region bear strong geographic resemblance (e.g., escarpments) and similar complex settlement patterns on and below the escarpments.<ref name="Vernet" /> In the Malian Lakes Region, the stone villages may have been constructed between the 2nd millennium BCE and the 1st millennium BCE.<ref name="Vernet" /> In 1st millennium CE, earthen tells were created in the plains, along the shoresides and in floodplains of the Niger River at Tondidarou; the difference in distance and dates may indicate that there was gradual change in settlement sites, from the regional section of the Malian Lake Region where the escarpments are located toward the regional section where Tondidarou is located, as well as gradual technical shift toward construction of earthen settlement mounds.<ref name="Vernet" /> Altogether, the archaeological evidence on and below the Malian Lakes Region escarpments of the 2nd millennium BCE - 1st millennium BCE may serve as connective evidence between Mema, Tondidarou and other Middle Niger sites of the 1st millennium CE, and the Tichitt Tradition of Mauritania.<ref name="Vernet" />
<gallery> File:Dupuis-Yacouba-Maxar map and satellite image.png|Map and satellite image File:Field boundary on the western shore of Lake Fati.png|Field boundary on the western shore of Lake Fati File:Densities of sites, permanent water, and impermanent water.webp|Location densities of sites, showing clear preferences for sandstone escarpments. Permanent water (1984–2021) in black, impermanent water in grey. File:Documented site locations, permanent water, and impermanent water.webp|Location of documented sites. Permanent water (1984–2021) in black, impermanent water in grey. File:Possible pillar structures in village sites of the Mali Lakes Region.webp|Possible pillar structures in village sites of the Mali Lakes Region </gallery>
==Legacy==
thumb|200px|Body of zoomorphic statuette
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 architecture and iron metallurgy (which had developed after 900 BCE).<ref name="MacDonald" /> 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.<ref name="Holl" /> Some pastoralists from Dhar Tichitt may have migrated toward the southeast and other pastoralists may have migrated southward<ref name="McDougall">{{cite book |last1=McDougall |first1=E. Ann |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History |chapter=Saharan Peoples and Societies |chapter-url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-285 |year=2019 |publisher=Oxford Research Encyclopedias |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.285 |isbn=978-0-19-027773-4 |s2cid=159184437}}</ref> (e.g., Middle Senegal River Valley of Senegal).<ref name="Mcintosh">{{cite book |last1=Mcintosh |first1=Susan Keech |title=The Development of Urbanism from a Global Perspective |year=1993 |chapter-url=https://www.arkeologi.uu.se/digitalAssets/483/c_483244-l_3-k_mcintoshall.pdf |page=2 |publisher=Uppsala University |chapter=A tale of two floodplains: comparative perspectives on the emergence of complex societies and urbanism in the middle Niger and Senegal valleys |s2cid=208195243}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Coutros">{{cite journal |last1=Coutros |first1=Peter R. |title=The Malian Lakes Region redefined: archaeological survey of the Gorbi Valley |journal=Antiquity |year=2017 |volume=91 |issue=356 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/130FA79106C62F9C5B1FAAC9C8E6AAAE/S0003598X17000308a.pdf/div-class-title-the-malian-lakes-region-redefined-archaeological-survey-of-the-gorbi-valley-div.pdf |page=483 |doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.30 |s2cid=161053129 |doi-access=free |issn=0003-598X |oclc=8271821798}}</ref> From Mauritania, the people of the Tichitt Tradition may have migrated into the Malian Lakes Region, Macina, and/or Méma.<ref name="Coutros" /> 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.<ref name="MacDonald III" /> 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.<ref name="McDougall" /> As aridification affected Lake Mega Chad, this resulted in the development of a nutrient abundant Lake Chad Basin; 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.<ref name="McDougall" /> Some pastoralists may have also peopled the region that would eventually become the Ghana Empire as well as early Awdaghust.<ref name="McDougall" /> In addition to complex social structure and agriculture, tumuli construction may have also spread from Tichitt, through the Inland Niger Delta, to Dogon Country.<ref name="Champion">{{cite journal |last1=Champion |first1=Louis |display-authors=etal |title=Agricultural diversification in West Africa: an archaeobotanical study of the site of Sadia (Dogon Country, Mali) |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |year=2021 |volume=13 |issue=4 |page=60 |doi=10.1007/s12520-021-01293-5 |pmid=33758626 |pmc=7937602 |bibcode=2021ArAnS..13...60C }}</ref> Following the Tichitt Tradition, in the 1st millennium CE, the pre-state urbanism of southern Mauritania developed into state-based urbanism (e.g., nucleation of peoples and regional specialization) in the western Sudan.<ref name="Monroe" /> Particularly, state-based urbanism in the Middle Niger and the Ghana Empire developed between 450 CE and 700 CE.<ref name="MacDonald II" />
==References==
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Category:History of the Sahara Category:History of Mauritania Category:Neolithic cultures of Africa Category:Archaeology of West Africa