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.