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Tichitt tradition

Man with a stick, and cows with marked coats

The Tichitt tradition,[1][2] or Tichitt culture,[3][4] was created by proto-Mande peoples,[5] namely the ancestors of the Soninke people.[6][7] 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.[8] Saharan pastoral culture (e.g., fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes) was intricate.[9] By 1800 BCE, Saharan pastoral culture expanded throughout the Saharan and Sahelian regions.[8] 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.[8] After migrating from the Central Sahara, proto-Mande peoples established their civilization in the Tichitt region[5] of the Western Sahara.[1] The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE[3][10] to 200 BCE.[11][12]

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.[13] At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, pearl millet may have also been independently domesticated amid the Neolithic.[14] 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,[2] and the Malian Lakes Region, which includes Tondidarou, may have served as a second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition.[15] The settlements of Dhar Tichitt consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing houses and granaries/"storage facilities", sometimes with street layouts.[10][16] 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."[10][16] The urban[1] Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa,[17] and an early civilization of the Sahara,[3][5] which may have served as the segue for state formation in West Africa.[9] Consequently, state-based urbanism in the Middle Niger and the Ghana Empire developed between the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE.[17][18]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Kea was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Linares-Matás was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference McDougall was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Maley, Jean; Vernet, Robert (July 2015). "Populations and Climatic Evolution in North Tropical Africa from the End of the Neolithic to the Dawn of the Modern Era". African Archaeological Review. 32 (2): 215–216. doi:10.1007/S10437-015-9190-Y. ISSN 0263-0338. JSTOR 43916734. OCLC 5858363395. S2CID 163024833.
  5. ^ a b c Abd-El-Moniem, Hamdi Abbas Ahmed (May 2005). A New Recording of Mauritanian Rock Art (PDF). University of London. p. 210. OCLC 500051500. S2CID 130112115.
  6. ^ Holl, Augustin (August 2009). "Coping with uncertainty: Neolithic life in the Dhar Tichitt-Walata, Mauritania, ( ca. 4000–2300 BP)". Comptes Rendus Geoscience. 341 (8–9): 703–712. doi:10.1016/j.crte.2009.04.005.
  7. ^ Hall A (1985). "Background to the Ghana Empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania)". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 4 (2): 108. doi:10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4.
  8. ^ a b c Brass, Michael (June 2019). "The Emergence of Mobile Pastoral Elites during the Middle to Late Holocene in the Sahara". Journal of African Archaeology. 17 (1): 3. doi:10.1163/21915784-20190003. OCLC 8197260980. S2CID 198759644.
  9. ^ a b Brass, Michael (2007). "Reconsidering the emergence of social complexity in early Saharan pastoral societies, 5000 – 2500 B.C." Sahara (Segrate, Italy). 18. Sahara (Segrate): 7–22. ISSN 1120-5679. OCLC 6923202386. PMC 3786551. PMID 24089595. S2CID 13912749.
  10. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Holl was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference MacDonald IV was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kay was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Sterry was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Champion was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vernet was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b Holl, Augustin (1985). "Background to the Ghana Empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania)". Journal of Anthropological Archaeology. 4 (2): 108. doi:10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4.
  17. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MacDonald II was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Gestrich, Nikolas (2019). "Ghana Empire". Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.396. ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4.
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