The earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa: a proto-Mande agropastoral tradition of planned stone-built settlements across the cliffs of southeastern Mauritania and the Malian lakes region.
The Tichitt Culture (c. 2000–200 BCE) in the Saharan Mauritanian region declined as the Sahara desiccated further and the population migrated southward; it is believed to have given way to or transformed into the predecessors of the ancient Ghana Empire and related Sahel polities by c. 200 BCE.
Standard reference covering Sahelian Neolithic cultures including the Tichitt tradition in the broader context of African prehistory.
An archaeological synthesis of West African Sahel complexity, including the Tichitt proto-Mande tradition.