The Neolithic population of the south-western Sahara is presented as a possible predecessor of the Soninke. Physical anthropology is used to suggest that these communities may have been proto-Soninke, ancestral to an Azer-speaking population still scattered across the area described. This identification remains tentative and is framed as a hypothesis rather than a definitive ethnic attribution.

The proposed continuity also rests on settlement form. P. J. Munson found similarities between the plans of the masonry villages at Dhar Tichitt-Walata and the brush or wattle villages of the Soninke and related Mande-speaking peoples. These architectural parallels connect the prehistoric settlement tradition to later forms of community organization without proving an uninterrupted population history.

Ceramic production provides a further possible link. Munson suggested continuity between the ceramic industry of the final Neolithic phase and that of the modern Soninke. The argument therefore combines biological interpretation, village plans, and craft traditions, while the language and population relationship remain explicitly uncertain.