Tichitt tradition

The Dhars, or cliffs, are located in the southeastern and central-southern regions of Mauritania. The cliffs span 800 kilometers. The Dhars of Mauritania are located between the Hodh Depression and Tagant Plateau. Dhar Néma and Dhar Tichitt are major escarpments 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. 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. 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. 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. ==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. 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. As areas where the Tichitt cultural tradition were present, Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata were occupied more frequently than Dhar Néma. The fundamental unit of the Mauritanian Dhars (e.g., Dhar Néma, Dhar Walata, Dhar Tichitt) was the extended family or polygamous family. Primary entry points of residences with access ramps (e.g., fortified, non-fortified) and watchtowers were also present. There were also gardens and fields located within a walled enclosure ranging between nine and fourteen hectares. 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. 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 Dhar Tichitt At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, the people of the Tichitt Tradition were considerably mobile each season; they practiced animal husbandry 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. At Dhar Tichitt, domesticated pearl millet imprints in pottery have been dated between 1900 BCE and 1500 BCE. Dating was confirmed by bones from a hippopotamus (2290±110 BP) and a few white rhinoceros (4000 BP – 2400 BP). 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. 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. Iron metallurgy 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 Pastoral rock art of Dhar Néma borders Dhar Walata. 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. 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. 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. 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 Malian Lakes Region The Malian Lakes Region may have served as the second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition. 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. 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. 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. 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. The Malian Lakes Region sites share connections with Tichitt Tradition sites via one of its categorized sites. Tell-type site pottery of the Malian Lakes Region also is similar in appearance (e.g., folded strip roulettes, thickened rims) to Faïta pottery. In total, there are 180 villages, hamlets, and many types of stone structures and enclosures. 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. 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. In the Malian Lakes Region, the stone villages may have been constructed between the 2nd millennium BCE and the 1st millennium BCE. 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. 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. 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 ==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 architecture and iron metallurgy (which had developed after 900 BCE). (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. 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. Particularly, state-based urbanism in the Middle Niger and the Ghana Empire developed between 450 CE and 700 CE. ==References==