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19 - The Tichitt tradition in the West African Sahel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

By
Kevin C. MacDonald
Edited by
Graeme Barker  and
Candice Goucher
Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Candice Goucher
Affiliation:
Washington State University
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Summary

The enigmatic Tichitt civilization has remained relatively unheralded in world archaeology despite its place as one of sub-Saharan Africa's earliest complex societies. Prior to the time of Tichitt, the region was populated by diffuse groups of mobile herders and hunter-gatherers. This period has alternatively been referred to as pre-Tichitt, Tichitt phase 1, or the Akreijit phase. Pre-Tichitt sites are small, relatively superficial localities, essentially temporary campsites. Once thought to represent dispersed hunter-gatherer populations separated from Tichitt by a brief hiatus, they are now understood to have been both pastoral and continuous with Tichitt itself. Tichitt cultivation was thus either part of a much wider process which was sweeping the Sahel at the time, or we may yet find roots of a longer, contiguous process of agricultural innovation in Mauritania. Tichitt tradition settlements now expand beyond the core Tichitt-Walata-Néma region as the Dhars and the Hodh basin empty out.

Keywords

Northwestern South AsiaagricultureGangetic plainseastern Indiasavanna India
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge World History , pp. 499 - 513
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Amblard-Pison, S. Communautés Villageoises Néolithiques des Dhars Tichitt et Oulata (Mauritanie). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 2006.Google Scholar
Holl, A.F.C. ‘Background to the Ghana empire: archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (Mauritania).’ Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 4 (1985), 73–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holl, A.F.C. ‘Late Neolithic cultural landscape in southeastern Mauritania: an essay in spatiometrics.’ In Holl, A.F.C. and Levy, T.E. (eds.), Spatial Boundaries and Social Dynamics: Case Studies from Food-Producing Societies. Ann Arbor, MI: International Monographs in Prehistory, 1993. 95–133.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K.C. ‘Before the empire of Ghana: pastoralism and the origins of cultural complexity in the Sahel.’ In Connah, G. (ed.), Transformations in Africa: Essays on Africa’s Later Past. London: Leicester University Press, 1998. 71–103.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K.C. ‘Betwixt Tichitt and the IND: the pottery of the Faïta Facies, Tichitt tradition.’ Azania, 46 (2011), 49–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacDonald, K.C. ‘Invisible pastoralists: an inquiry into the origins of nomadic pastoralism in the West African Sahel.’ In Gosden, C. and Hather, J. (eds.), Prehistory of Food: Appetites for Change. London: Routledge, 1999. 333–49.Google Scholar
MacDonald, K.C., Vernet, R., Martinon-Torres, M., and Fuller, D.Q.. ‘Dhar Néma: from early agriculture to metallurgy in southeastern Mauritania.’ Azania, 44 (2009), 3–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, K. ‘A developmental history for early West African agriculture.’ In Allsworth-Jones, P. (ed.), West African Archaeology: New Developments, New Perspectives. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2010. 43–52.Google Scholar
Munson, P.J. ‘Archaeological data on the origins of cultivation in the southwestern Sahara and their implications for West Africa.’ In Harlan, J.R., de Wet, J.M.J., and Stemler, A.B. (eds.), Origins of African Plant Domestication. The Hague: Mouton, 1976. 187–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munson, P.J. ‘Archaeology and the prehistoric origins of the Ghana empire.’ Journal of African History, 21 (1980), 457–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ould Khattar, M. ‘Les sites Gangara, la fin de la culture de Tichitt et l’origine de Ghana.’ Journal des Africanistes, 65 (1995), 31–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vernet, R. Préhistoire de la Mauritanie. Nouakchott: Centre Culturel Français A. de Saint-Exupéry; Paris: Sépia, 1993.Google Scholar

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