Dhar Tichitt

Dhar Tichitt is a Neolithic archaeological site located in the southwestern region of the Sahara Desert in Mauritania. It is one of several settlement locations along the sandstone cliffs in the area. Tichitt culture includes Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Walata, Dhar Néma, and Dhar Tagant, and possibly sites from the Malian Lakes Region. 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, and the Malian Lakes Region, which includes Tondidarou, may have served as a second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition. The cliffs of Dhar Tichitt were inhabited by farmers and pastoralists between 4000 BP and 2300 BP, or between 2000 BCE and 300 BCE.

Dhar Tichitt is one of the oldest known archaeological occupation sites in West Africa. About 500 stone settlements littered the region in the former savannah of the Sahara. In addition to herding livestock (cattle, sheep, goats), its inhabitants hunted, fished, collected wild grain, and grew bulrush millet. The inhabitants and creators of these settlements during these periods thought to have been ancestors of the Soninke people. Plateau settlements consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing houses and granaries/"storage facilities", sometimes with street layouts. Large livestock enclosures were erected in proximity of some sites. And 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."