Philip de Barros

Palomar College, Behavioral Sciences, Emeritus

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B.A. (history), M.A. (education) from Stanford

PhD (Anthropology/Archaeology) from UCLA

Peace Corps Volunteer and Administrator 7 years, Togo, West Africa

Director of Cultural Resources, Chambers Group, Orange County, CA 1985-1994, consultant 2004-05

Professor of Anthropology, Palomar College, 1994-2017

Coordinator, A.A. Degree Program, Palomar College, 1996-2016

Peer reviewed articles and book chapters, 1982-2023. Book 2021. Available on request.
Career focused on Bassar ironworking region, northern Togo, 1981-present.

Currently working on 2-volume work in French on the Bassar Early Iron Age (Vol 1, July 2021), Later Iron Age (Vol 2, 2026).

Founding Chair, African Chronometric Dating Fund (ACDF), service committee of the Society for Africanist Archaeologists, 2022-present

March 2021) and Later Iron Age (2026).
Supervisors: UCLA JimHill, TimEarle, MPosnansky, DwightRead
Phone: 17608079489
Address: 13730 Via Cima Bella, San Diego, CA 92129, USA

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Papers by Philip de Barros

The Bassar : large scale iron producers of the West African savanna

Archaeological Reconnaissance and Assessment of a 12.78 Acre Parcel Situated at 30942 Silverado Canyon Road, Orange County, California

Bassar: a quantified, chronologically controlled, regional approach to a traditional iron production centre in West Africa

Africa, Apr 1, 1986

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Cultural Resources Survey Report For the Four Corners Pipe Line Company Line 90 Pipeline Reversal

Cultural Resources Survey and Assessment of Approximately Thirty Acres in Arroyo Seco Drainage, Cuyamace Rancho State Park, San Diego County, California

Archaeological Survey and Historic Structure Evaluation at 1050-1060 Scott Street, San Diego, San Diego County, California

West African Iron Production in Its Sub-Saharan Context

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Feb 22, 2023

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthro... more This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Please check back later for the full article. One of the major debates in African Iron Age research has focused on the origins of iron production (what, where, when, and how), including evolving technological strategies from bellows-driven to natural draft furnaces and associated production levels, and whether ironworking technology in sub-Saharan Africa was borrowed or had independent origins. While the debate continues, research has revealed a stunning diversity of furnace construction, the use of natural draft furnaces since perhaps as early as the first millennium B.C.E, clear evidence of ore selectivity, and improved technological processes via trial and error. The importance of West (and sub-Saharan) African iron production can best be understood within its various cultural contexts, rather than from a strictly Western technological perspective. What were the various impacts of iron production and technology on West African societies? These include demographics (population growth, settlement system dynamics, and sedentism); economics (increased food production, wealth accumulation (especially in cattle) and trade; environmental (deforestation, mining, and watersheds); social ramifications (changes in the social organization of production, including specialization; changes in social status, including castes) and in the rise of social hierarchies or heterarchies; political organization (links to political power and the rise of political centralization ); and, finally, its links to magic, religion, and societal ontologies (including birth, life or existence, sexuality and renewal, other liminal experiences, truth, and death), especially the tightly woven nexus of technology and ritual in smelting and to a lesser degree in smithing. In terms of theoretical issues and associated research goals, how were the materials and processes of ironworking integrated into societal belief systems, and to what extent were these systems reinforced, modified, or expanded as a result of the rise of ironworking technology? How does this process in the context of different cultural beliefs and practices lead to different technological styles? How does the colonial and postcolonial history of Africa impact what researchers decide to study and how they interpret results? How did the rise of ironworking affect material culture beyond ironworking technology itself? For example, there appears to be a correlation with the rise of ironworking technology and changes in ceramic vessel forms and associated decorative motifs. In terms of methods, what practically oriented strategies for resolving specific research questions are currently available? They include intensive regional sample surveys; extensive surveys linked to opportunistic sampling and a focus on local oral traditions; ethnoarchaeological approaches combining oral traditions and selective excavations to yield information on ceramics and chronology, smelting and smithing technologies, iron-production levels, dietary information and mortuary practices, all with the goal of understanding African cultural matrices of which ironworking became an integral part. The study of the trade in smelted iron and iron tools requires a multidisciplinary study of historical and colonial archives, oral traditions, and the identification of the chemical signatures of various ore sources that can be tied to iron ore and tools over local and regional spaces. In addition, the study of ironworking technologies requires funding and access to expensive recording and investigative technologies, which limits its accessibility and often requires the development of joint research programs.

The Rise of the Bassar Chiefdom in the Context of Africa's Internal Frontier

Cambridge University Press eBooks, Mar 5, 2012

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Societal repercussions of the rise of large-scale traditional iron production: a West African example

African Archaeological Review, Dec 1, 1988

Numerous scholars have outlined what they believed to be the consequences of the advent of iron t... more Numerous scholars have outlined what they believed to be the consequences of the advent of iron technology in sub-Saharan Africa: increased food production using more efficient bush clearing tools; increased population densities; larger and more stable communities; increased trade, specialization and social differentiation; and the 'embryonic rise' of modern politics. (Davidson 1974.) However, little has been demonstrated in the field. A regional study of the Bassar iron industry of northern Togo has shown that the rise of large-scale iron production may lead to higher population densities, larger and more stable communities, a more aggregated settlement pattern in the ore zone, and increased craft specialization and trade. However, it does not necessarily result in a significant increase in the degree of political centralization. The Bassar data also suggest that even the appearance of relatively small scale iron production may generate similar trends, albeit at more modest levels. R6sum6 De nombreux auteurs ont d4crit ce qu'ils proposent d'avoir ht4 les cons~quences de l'adoption de la technologie de fer dans l'Afrique au sud du Sahara: augmentation de la production de nourriture 5 l'aide des outils plus efficaces pour d4broussailler le paysage; augmentation des densit4s de population; communaut4s plus grandes et plus stables; croissance de la commerce, de la specialisation artisanale et de la differentiation sociale; et 'naissance embryonique' de la politique moderne (Davidson 1974). Cependant il n 'y a que tr~s peu de ce schema qui a 4t4 valid4 par les recherches sur le terrain. Une 4tude r4gionale de l'industrie du fer des Bassar du nord de Togo a montr4 que l'essor de la production de fer ~t grande 4chelle peut aboutir ~t des densit4s de population plus hauts, des communaut4s plus grands et plus stables, une r4partition de l'habitat plus agr4g4e dans la zone des minerais de fer, et l'augmentation de la specialisation artisanale et du commerce. Cependant il n'aboutit pas obligatoirement ~t une centralisation importante au niveau politique. Les r4sultats fournis par cette htude des Bassar nous amhnt ~t proposer aussi que mhme l'apparition de la production modeste de fer peut donner naissance ~ des d4veloppements comparables, mais d'un ampleur plus restreint.

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Cultural Resources Inventory and Evaluation of the Lytle Creek Hydroelectric Project, FERC Project #1932

Cultural Resources Inventory and Evaluation of the Santa Ana River Hydroelectric Project, FERC Project No. 1933

Cultural Resources Inventory and Evaluation of the Mill Creek Hydroelectric Project

Archaeological Survey And Evaluation of the Honda Beach Site SBA-530 Volume1- Report With Appendices

Traditions on Ironworking - La métallurgie ancienne du fer dans la région de Koumbri (Yatenga, Burkina Faso). Par Issaka Samtouma. (Etudes sur l'Histoire et l'Archéologie du Burkina Faso No. 4.) Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1990. Pp. xi+176. DM 46

The Journal of African History, Jul 1, 1993

offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of a... more offers something to upset everyone: I was somewhat shocked by Smith's cavalier rejection of an early Southern Cushitic pastoral expansion, and later bemused by the sudden use of the Himba as a 'test' of Moore's ideas concerning space and gender (p. 189), which were briefly introduced here for the first time. The final two chapters discuss the challenges faced by pastoral societies in the modern world. In particular, Smith discusses development and the problems and prospects of aid interventions. He rightly points to the need to give pastoralists more than a token say in their own future and for aid workers to acknowledge the skills and experience that pastoralists possess. Both governments and development specialists tend to be portrayed somewhat simplistically as villains. It is a pity that Smith does not discuss Somalia when he claims that pastoralists have usually had little representation in central government. However, what I found most disturbing was that despite claiming that 'the image of unchanging traditional African societies has been shown to be a myth', Smith promulgates this very myth by contrasting the present state of African pastoral societies with a 'traditional' past. For example, he attempts 'a reconstruction of the traditional adaptive strategies' (p. 184), claims that 'the traditional pastoral economy was not precarious' (p. 206) and remarks that 'today's pressures require the traditional pastoralist to adapt now' (p. 255). Notwithstanding its good intentions, this book is a disappointment. It lacks structure, is poorly edited and has inadequate maps.