Archaeological and linguistic evidence reveals that the area of present day Ghana has been occupied for at least twelve millennia; the first place of human habitation being on the banks of the Oti River in about 10,000 BC, followed by human occupation in area around Lake Bosumtwi by about 8,000 BC and on the Accra plains in about 4,000 BC. There is also evidence that Neolithic culture with agriculture, domesticated animals, community life, pottery, iron technology and trade existed along the Volta linking the peoples of the south to the Trans-Saharan trade route to the north by the first century AD. By AD 1400, most of the states that constitute present-day Ghana had either been founded or were in advanced stages of formation. Prominent among those which had been founded are the states to the northeast, i.e., the Mole-Dagbanai states of Mamprugu, Dagbon and Nanumba and the states on the northwester n fringe of the Akan forest, i.e., Banda and Bono Manso near modern Tekyiman. By the beginning of the 16th Century these states had become centralized political authorities and were full-fledged nations.