While still working on an original post on the continuing "Tichitt Traditiona" thought I'd keep the thread alive by posting this tentative timeline I intend to flesh out into a text (time permitting).
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-2000 (hunting of megafauna) . . 1 -1880 to -1620 Akreijit
-1500 to -1100 (limited hunting, gathering and herding * milling - first cramcram/kram kram - then millet & sorghum) . 2 -1500 Khimiya -- Cenchrus biflorus . . -1400 to - 800 (? Chebka/Arriane ?) . 3 -1300 ± 100 Goungou . 4 -1100 Naghez -- Pennisetum Brachiaria deflexa . -1100 Naghez (dry phase) * villages - autonomous - large - stone masonry - planned street layout * low population density * incipient cultivators . 5 -1050 ± 50 Glaib Tija . . 6 -1000 to - 800 Chebka . 6 - 950 ± 50 Chebka III Seyyid Orinq . -1000 to - 800 Chebka * villages - fortified * rapid population increase * full-blown agriculture - limited agricultural land _ silt deposits _ seasonally wetted former lake beds - rain 150mm annually - no artificial irrigation . . 7 - 800 to - 600 Arriane - 800 to - 600 Arriane * population increase continues * subsistence economy - cultivated products * Trachitt Tradition - spreads _ Dhar Tichitt to Dhar Nema * Kedama - over a kilometre big - central administration of a complex political system(?) . - 700 to - 600 Libyco-Berber marauders (?) - 700 to - 600 Garamante/Libyco-Berber marauders (?) * ox-cart * later with horses * metal weapons * kill and enslave the population (? I doubt it!) . . 8 - 650 ± 150 Akjinjeir Bledd Initi 8 - 600 to - 300 Akjinjeir -600 to - 300 Akjinjeir *terminal neolithic *decline in -architecture -lithic -ceramic *villages -concealed -fortified *domestic animal bones -drop dramatically
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The Garamante network (~550 BCE to ~550 CE) had five main routes. The one that immediately concerns our topic is the GARAMANTE BAMBUK-BURE PRODUCT or southwest mainline (though I've included the two other inner African lanes).
By contrast the area around Dar Tichitt in southern Mauritania has been the subject of much archaeological attention, revealing successive layers of settlement near what still were small lakes as late as 1200 BCE. At this time people there built circular compounds, 60-100 feet in diameter, near the beaches of the lakes. (‘Compound’ is the name given to a housing type, still common today, in which several members of related families share space within a wall.) These compounds were arranged into large villages located about 12 miles from each other. Inhabitants fished, herded cattle and planted some millet, which they stored in pottery vessels. This was the last era of reasonable moisture in this part of the Sahara. By 1000 BCE the villages, still made up of compounds, had been relocated to hilltop positions, and were walled. Cattle were still herded, more millet was grown, but there were no more lakes for fishing. From 700-300 BCE the villages decreased in size and farming was reduced at the expense of pastoralism.
Architecturally, the villages of Dar Tichitt resemble those of the modern northern Mande (Soninke), who live in the savanna 300-400 miles to the south. These ancient villagers were not only farmers, but were engaged in trade connected with the salt and copper mines which developed to the north. Horse drawn vehicles passed through the Tichitt valley, bringing trading opportunities, ideas, and opening up the inhabitants to raids from their more nomadic northern neighbors (1). Development of the social and political organization necessary to handle commerce and defense must have been a factor in the subsequent development of Ghana, the first great Sudannic empire, in this part of West Africa.
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The below chronology accompanied the above posted text and puts Tichitt within a broad context. But read it cautiously. It needs serious revision in spots where its presentation is seriously marred by outdated Eurocentricisms. I've bracketed the two things I find not to be factual or only partially true.
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CHRONOLOGY OF ANCIENT WEST AFRICA . . After 12,000 BCE Beginning of a wetter phase in Africa north of the equator. Populations ancestral to most West Africans make up the foragers and hunters of these lands. . By about 8,000 BCE Great lakes formed in Niger Bend, Lake Chad and Upper Nile regions. Spread of 'African aquatic culture' through this ‘great lakes’ region. Sedentary fishing communities using pottery and microlithic tools become established long the shores of lakes and rivers. Saharan region enjoys savanna-type climate. Favorable conditions lead to population growth. . 9,000 to 6,000 BCE Saharan region in its wettest phases. . By 6,000 BCE Evidence of domesticated 'humpless' cattle in the Saharan region. Also seed-cropping (or harvesting) of grains. . 6,000-2,500 BCE Spread of predominantly cattle-raising peoples throughout the Sahara. Probably ancestral to [modern-day Berber groups]. . 3,000-1,000 BCE Farming spreads through the former fishing belt of the tropical woodland savannas and forest margins of West Africa. This Guinea Neolithic era saw the domestication of millets, rice, sorghum, yams, and palm trees among others. . After 2,500 BCE Saharan region enters a period of rapid desertification, driving people and larger game animals to seek better watered lands to the north and south for habitation. Neolithic settlements spread along the Saharan borderlands and near rivers and lakes in the West. . 1,200-700 BCE Excavations at Dar Tichitt (modern Mauritania) reveal progression from large, un-walled lakeside villages to smaller walled hilltop villages in response to drier climate and increasing pressure from nomads. . After 2,000 BCE Favorable climatic conditions and developing technology and socio-cultural systems lead to population growth in the Niger valleys. Neolithic farming spreading south and east from the area of modern-day Cameroon. Probably associated with speakers of proto-Bantu languages. . After 500 BCE [Advent of iron-smelting and iron use in West Africa.] Height of the civilization known as Nok, which produced art work ancestral to that of later Yoruba and Igbo peoples.
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