This site is considered a Neolithic site. The Neolithic period in Africa (sometimes referred to as the
Pastoral Neolithic) is marked by a change from
hunter-gatherer lifestyles towards agricultural or pastoralist ones. Patrick Munson hypothesized that the Dhar Tichitt region was inhabited by pastoralists around 4500 BP, and it likely reached its population and cultural peak during this period. He also believed that the 4500 to 4000 BP date range of most significant occupation corresponded well with the
Mid-Holocene humid period. • Pre-Tichitt (Phase I, Akreijit): 2600 to 1900 BCE. Mobile hunter-gatherers and herders living in temporary campsites. • Early Tichitt (Phase II and III, Khimiya and Goungou): 1900 to 1600 BCE. Initial cultivation of domesticated pearl millet. Considerable degree of mobility. • Classic Tichitt (Phases IV-VI, N'Khall, Naghez, and Chebka): 1600 to 1000 BCE. Development of settlements comprising clusters of stone-walled compounds. • Late Tichitt (Phases VII and VIII, Arriane and Akjineir): 1000 to 400 BCE. Period of intense aridification and demographic decline in the Tichitt-Oualata region. The majority of expert on this site agree with dividing the chronology into either three or four periods. However, there is some level of pushback from one of the leading archaeologists at the site, Sylvie Amblard-Pison, who does not believe that the current data is able to represent an accurate chronology. Overall, the chronology at the site is contentious, especially due to the spatial separation across a large space which makes it difficult to determine relative
stratigraphy.
Agriculture The first evidence for domestication of grain in the Dhar Tichitt region came from impressions in of grain on
potsherds found by Patrick Munson's excavation. These impressions demonstrated that millet (
Pennisetum glaucum) had been domesticated in the region. Further analysis has demonstrated that the crop had been fully domesticated by at least 1100 BCE, but it likely occurred significantly before this. At the same time, some interpretations have concluded that during the dry season, wild grains and fruits were collected in the lowlands to supplement the otherwise
pastoralist diet. Interestingly, the Tichitt culture was not unique in its domestication of millet, with some estimates placing domestication in associated
Sahelian regions at around 2500 to 2000 BCE. In fact, it has been suggested that domestication was taking place as early as the fourth millennium BCE. It is likely that grain domestication in Dhar Tichitt was part of a much larger movement across the Sahel. Moreover, the evidence for material culture changes between the Pre-Tichitt and Early Tichitt periods appears to suggest that people started to farm millet more intensively around this time. This pastoral tradition persisted in the area far beyond the fall of the Tichitt culture; many
Fulbe clans claim to have originally come from the Dhar Tichitt area, which they called 'Maasina' and became the namesake of the
Sultanate of Massina, the
Massina Empire and the modern town of
Ke Macina in
Mali.
Social structure Many of the societies of the Sahelian West Africa region are defined by organization into compounds, which encompass a given kinship group's material possessions. Several factors point to the idea that households at the site had
socioeconomic differentiation. The massive stone compounds that have come to define the site in the Classical Tichitt period are known to have served as dividers for social space. Different spaces within these compounds housed different classes of workers. It is thought that each of these district centers was capable of managing up to 20 different hamlets. Moreover, the increased the diversity in decoration and pottery types as the culture transitioned into Dhar Tichitt may have been related to specialization.
Ties to Middle Niger Many archeologists have hypothesized a connection between the Dhar Tichitt and the overarching Middle
Niger River Delta cultures such as the
Ghana Empire. Both archeological and linguistic evidence shows that the Soninke people associated with the Ghana Empire are descendants of the remnants of the Tichitt culture following its collapse. Most of the archeological evidence has come in the form of ceramics, cattle remains, and stonework present on the Northern border of the known Middle Niger boundaries. The earliest Tichitt assemblages present in this region have been dated to around 1300 BCE at the Saberi Faita site. Violent conflicts with Berbers may have contributed to the fall of this society. Moreover, the Berber influences may be present in the material culture of the Late Tichitt period. Sites such as Dhar Nema show the sudden presence of metallurgy, which were not associated with any of the previous Tichitt culture sites. Some suggest Berbers may have brought metal-making culture into the region, but also state that, "the major difficulty for testing this hypothesis is that so little is known about Berber metallurgy, its technology and its antiquity." Berbers are thought to have displaced many of the original inhabitants of the area, who then gradually moved into the northern Middle Niger River Valley. ==References==