Tichit Walata

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Ajackson17
Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
Abstract
The sandstone escarpment of the Dhar Tichitt in South-Central Mauritania was inhabited by Neolithic agropastoral communities for approximately one and half millennium during the Late Holocene, from ca. 4000 to 2300 BP. The absence of prior evidence of human settlement points to the influx of mobile herders moving away from the “drying” Sahara towards more humid lower latitudes. These herders took advantage of the peculiarities of the local geology and environment and succeeded in domesticating bulrush millet – Pennisetum sp. The emerging agropastoral subsistence complex had conflicting and/or complementary requirements depending on circumstances. In the long run, the social adjustment to the new subsistence complex, shifting site location strategies, nested settlement patterns and the rise of more encompassing polities appear to have been used to cope with climatic hazards in this relatively circumscribed area. An intense arid spell in the middle of the first millennium BC triggered the collapse of the whole Neolithic agropastoral system and the abandonment of the areas. These regions, resettled by sparse oasis-dwellers populations and iron-using communities starting from the first half of the first millennium AD, became part of the famous Ghana “empire”, the earliest state in West African history.
Source:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631071309000996

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Archaeological investigations in southern Mauretania have revealed a wealth of rather spectacular stone masonry villages which were occupied by prehistoric cultivators as early as 1000 B.C. It is argued that the inhabitants of these villages were ? and very probably Soninke, and that the basic elements of their culture had developed without major influences from outside the area. The apparent sophistication and complexity of this cultural manifestation, combined with the close fit of developments in this area with Carneiro's theory of state formation, suggests that this prehistoric complex represented at least a powerful chiefdom which embodied many of the characteristics of subsequent West African states. The first demonstrable outside influences in the area began about 600 B.C. with the arrival of Libyco-Berbers from North Africa. Rather than causing still further cultural advances, the initial effect of this contact was the collapse of this sociopolitical organization. But with subsequent adjustment, plus the potential from trans-Saharan trade carried out by the North Africans, the basic, pre-existing pattern re-emerged, resulting eventually in a second and much more powerful African political organization in this area – the Ghana Empire.

The town inhabited by the king is six miles from the Muslim one and is called Al Ghana. The area between the two towns is covered with houses made of stone and wood. The king has a palace and conical huts, surrounded by a wall-like enclosure. In the king’s town, not far from the royal court of justice, is a mosque. The Muslims who come on missions to the king pray there. There is one great avenue, which crosses the town from east to west.
Source:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3241716

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Comments

  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    There are many pictures and evidence of us having advance culture around the time of Mesopatamia, Indus Valley, and etc but it is given no look due to the image of Europeans put on us for centuries that we couldn't have advance culture.
  • Bully_Pulpit
    Bully_Pulpit Members Posts: 5,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    The architecture is beautiful.
  • trendsetta1030
    trendsetta1030 Members Posts: 2,730 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Abstract
    The sandstone escarpment of the Dhar Tichitt in South-Central Mauritania was inhabited by Neolithic agropastoral communities for approximately one and half millennium during the Late Holocene, from ca. 4000 to 2300 BP. The absence of prior evidence of human settlement points to the influx of mobile herders moving away from the “drying” Sahara towards more humid lower latitudes. These herders took advantage of the peculiarities of the local geology and environment and succeeded in domesticating bulrush millet – Pennisetum sp. The emerging agropastoral subsistence complex had conflicting and/or complementary requirements depending on circumstances. In the long run, the social adjustment to the new subsistence complex, shifting site location strategies, nested settlement patterns and the rise of more encompassing polities appear to have been used to cope with climatic hazards in this relatively circumscribed area. An intense arid spell in the middle of the first millennium BC triggered the collapse of the whole Neolithic agropastoral system and the abandonment of the areas. These regions, resettled by sparse oasis-dwellers populations and iron-using communities starting from the first half of the first millennium AD, became part of the famous Ghana “empire”, the earliest state in West African history.
    Source:
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1631071309000996

    2ujh91z.jpg

    1175093587_g_0.jpg

    17.jpg

    Archaeological investigations in southern Mauretania have revealed a wealth of rather spectacular stone masonry villages which were occupied by prehistoric cultivators as early as 1000 B.C. It is argued that the inhabitants of these villages were ? and very probably Soninke, and that the basic elements of their culture had developed without major influences from outside the area. The apparent sophistication and complexity of this cultural manifestation, combined with the close fit of developments in this area with Carneiro's theory of state formation, suggests that this prehistoric complex represented at least a powerful chiefdom which embodied many of the characteristics of subsequent West African states. The first demonstrable outside influences in the area began about 600 B.C. with the arrival of Libyco-Berbers from North Africa. Rather than causing still further cultural advances, the initial effect of this contact was the collapse of this sociopolitical organization. But with subsequent adjustment, plus the potential from trans-Saharan trade carried out by the North Africans, the basic, pre-existing pattern re-emerged, resulting eventually in a second and much more powerful African political organization in this area – the Ghana Empire.

    The town inhabited by the king is six miles from the Muslim one and is called Al Ghana. The area between the two towns is covered with houses made of stone and wood. The king has a palace and conical huts, surrounded by a wall-like enclosure. In the king’s town, not far from the royal court of justice, is a mosque. The Muslims who come on missions to the king pray there. There is one great avenue, which crosses the town from east to west.
    Source:
    http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=3241716

    mauritania-ancient-cities.jpg

    ksar1.jpg

    ksar1.jpg

    4376364118_61bed2763c_z.jpg

    4376365136_fec0da6111_z.jpg

    Nice pics long post
  • The Lonious Monk
    The Lonious Monk Members Posts: 26,258 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    It's crazy how ? like this has been around for for forever, but they are still acting like Black people never created anything before Whites "civilized" us.
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    It's crazy how ? like this has been around for for forever, but they are still acting like Black people never created anything before Whites "civilized" us.

    Yup, it is crazy ass hell. You can look up the information west africans created iron
  • Shizlansky
    Shizlansky Members Posts: 35,095 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    I don't think you can create iron
  • zzombie
    zzombie Members Posts: 11,280 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    Shizlansky wrote: »
    I don't think you can create iron

    Don't confuse iron with iron ore
  • Olorun22
    Olorun22 Members Posts: 5,696 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    You can't create anything that already exists
  • whatevathehell
    whatevathehell Members Posts: 4,015 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    zzombie wrote: »
    Shizlansky wrote: »
    I don't think you can create iron

    Don't confuse iron with iron ore

    Naw he was right.. It would have been better to say manipulate iron to fashion weapons tools etc.
  • BelovedAfeni
    BelovedAfeni Members Posts: 8,647 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    came in here thinking this was some black girls name
  • Ajackson17
    Ajackson17 Members Posts: 22,501 ✭✭✭✭✭
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    zzombie wrote: »
    Shizlansky wrote: »
    I don't think you can create iron

    Don't confuse iron with iron ore

    Naw he was right.. It would have been better to say manipulate iron to fashion weapons tools etc.

    Thank you bro.