Tichitt culture
Earliest West African Civilization / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Tichitt Culture,[1][2][3] or Tichitt Tradition,[4][5][6][7][8][9] was created by proto-Mande peoples.[10] 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.[11] Saharan pastoral culture (e.g., fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes) was intricate.[12] By 1800 BCE, Saharan pastoral culture expanded throughout the Saharan and Sahelian regions.[11] 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.[11] After migrating from the Central Sahara, proto-Mande peoples established their civilization in the Tichitt region[10] of the Western Sahara.[8] The Tichitt Tradition of eastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE[1][13] to 200 BCE.[14][15]
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.[3] At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, pearl millet may have also been independently domesticated amid the Neolithic.[16] 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,[9] and the Malian Lakes Region, which includes Tondidarou, may have served as a second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition.[17] The settlements of Dhar Tichitt consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing houses and granaries/"storage facilities", sometimes with street layouts.[13][18] 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."[13][18] The urban[8] Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa,[6] and an early civilization of the Sahara,[1][10] which may have served as the segue for state formation in West Africa.[12] Consequently, state-based urbanism in the Middle Niger and the Ghana Empire developed between 450 CE and 700 CE.[6]