Trans-Saharan trade and the Kingdom of Ancient Ghana

We saw in Chapter 3 that long-distance trade across the Sahara had gone on for many centuries before the introduction of the camel. Originally, desert dwellers sold Saharan salt in exchange for food grown by people living north or south of the desert. The earliest trade goods were probably carried strapped to the backs of cattle, known as pack oxen. Evidence for this is found in the Saharan rock paintings described in Chapter 2 (Figure 2.3). Cattle that were acclimatised to desert conditions could travel several days without water as they moved from the grazing and water of one oasis to another.