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[[File:Ghana empire map.png|thumb|The [[Ghana Empire]] at its greatest extent]]
In the western [[Sahel]] the rise of settled communities occurred largely as a result of the domestication of [[millet]] and of [[sorghum]]. Archaeology points to sizable urban populations in West Africa beginning in the 3rd millennium BC, which had developed [[Iron metallurgy in Africa|iron metallurgy]] by 1200 BC, in both [[smelting]] and [[forging]] for tools and weapons.<ref>Duncan E. Miller and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Early Metal Working in Sub Saharan Africa' ''Journal of African History'' 35 (1994) 1–36; Minze Stuiver and N.J. Van Der Merwe, 'Radiocarbon Chronology of the Iron Age in Sub-Saharan Africa' ''Current Anthropology'' 1968.</ref> Prior to the accession of [[Trans-Saharan trade|trans-Saharan trade routes]], symbiotic trade relations developed in response to the opportunities afforded by north–south diversity in ecosystems across deserts, grasslands, and forests,{{sfnp|Collins|Burns|2007|pp=79–80}} trading [[West African cuisine#Meat|meat]]s, [[copper]], [[iron]], [[salt]], and [[gold]]. Various civilisations prospered in this period, such as the [[Tichitt culture]] from 4000 BC, the oldest known [[complex society|complexly organised society]] in West Africa with a four tiered [[hierarchical]] social structure;<ref>{{cite journal |last=Holl |first=Augustine |title=Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania) |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=73–115 |year=1985 |doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0278416585900054}}</ref> the [[Serer prehistory|Serer civilisation]] in modern-day [[Senegal]] who's people constructed monumental [[Senegambian stone circles|monolith circles]]; the [[Nok culture]] in modern-day [[Nigeria]] who's people developed [[African art|art]] in the form of [[Nok culture#Sculptures|terracotta sculptures]] presumably through large-scale economic production from 900 BC;<ref name="Breunig II" /> the [[Kintampo Complex|Kintampo culture]] in modern-day [[Ghana]] with finds suggesting the people had formed a [[complex society]] and were skilled with [[Later Stone Age]] technologies from 2500 BC;<ref name="anquandah1995">Anquandah, James (1995) The Kintampo Complex: a case study of early sedentism and food production in sub-Sahelian west Africa, pp. 255–259 in Shaw, Thurstan, Andah, Bassey W and Sinclair, Paul (1995). The Archaeology of Africa: Food, Metals and Towns. London: Routledge. {{ISBN|0-415-11585-X}}</ref> the shadowy [[Bura culture]] in modern-day [[Niger]] and [[Burkina Faso]]; and [[Djenné-Djenno]], an [[egalitarian]] civilisation in modern-day [[Mali]] who's people also produced [[Djenné-Djenno#Terra-cotta figurines from the Inner Niger Delta region|expressive terracotta sculptures]]. There is also record of [[Igodomigodo]], a small kingdom founded in 40 BC which would later go on to form the [[Benin Empire]].
Towards the end of the 3rd century, a [[Monsoon#Africa (West African and Southeast African)|wet period]] in the Sahel opened up areas for human exploitation and habitation which had not been inhabitable for the best part of a millennium, causing the [[Ghana Empire#Rise of the Empire|Kingdom of Wagadu]], the predecessor to the [[Ghana Empire]], to rise out of the Tichitt culture, growing wealthy through the newfound viability of [[trans-Saharan trade|trans-Saharan trade routes]] following the introduction of the [[Dromedary|camel]] to the western Sahel by camel-owning [[Berbers]], which linked [[Koumbi Saleh|their capital]] and [[Aoudaghost]] with [[Tiaret|Tahert]] and [[Sijilmasa]] in North Africa.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gestrich |first=Nikolas |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history |chapter=Ghana Empire |year=2019 |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396}}</ref> Wagadu made its profits from exporting [[gold]] and [[textiles]] among other goods, incentivising the development major urban centres.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |url=https://www.vitaminedz.com/articlesfiche/7182/7182321.pdf}}</ref> Wagadu's core traversed modern-day southern [[Mauritania]] and western [[Mali]], and [[Soninke people|Soninke]] [[Oral tradition|tradition]] portrays early Ghana as very warlike, with horse-mounted warriors key to increasing its territory and population.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gestrich |first=Nikolas |title=Oxford Research Encyclopedias: African history |chapter=Ghana Empire |year=2019 |url=https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-396}}</ref> It has been stipulated that relative to Wagadu there were many more simultaneous and preceding kingdoms, based on [[Tumulus#Africa|large tumuli]] scattered across West Africa dating to this period, which have unfortunately been lost to time.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Posnansky |first=Merrick |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/documentViewer.xhtml?v=2.1.196&id=p::usmarcdef_0000184265&file=/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_976b4f2f-4e7c-44ec-a92e-2014aa9d86f0%3F_%3D184265engo.pdf&locale=en&multi=true&ark=/ark:/48223/pf0000184265/PDF/184265engo.pdf#%5B%7B%22num%22%3A2903%2C%22gen%22%3A0%7D%2C%7B%22name%22%3A%22XYZ%22%7D%2Cnull%2Cnull%2C0%5D |title=General History of Africa: Volume 2 |publisher=UNESCO |year=1981 |page=729 |chapter=The societies of Africa south of the Sahara in the Early Iron Age}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Holl |first=Augustine |year=1985 |title=Background to the Ghana empire: Archaeological investigations on the transition to statehood in the Dhar Tichitt region (mauritania) |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0278416585900054 |journal=Journal of Anthropological Archaeology |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=73–115 |doi=10.1016/0278-4165(85)90005-4}}</ref>
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