The British Museum Siraf project
Project leader: Seth M. N. Priestman
Department: Middle East
Project start date: 2007
End date: 2009
Project funded by:
- British Institute of Persian Studies
- British Museum Challenge fund
- Iran Heritage Foundation
External partners: British Institute of Persian
Studies
Description:
The port of Siraf is in southern Iran, roughly half way
along the north shore of the Persian Gulf within a shallow bay
partially occupied today by the village of Tahiri. The remains of
the medieval city are confined within a narrow coastal strip
of about 0.5-1 km wide with mountain ridges running parallel
to the coast rising up immediately behind. The port has a
relatively close deep water approach, solid anchorage and good
protection from the dominant storm pattern: the North-Wester or
Shimal. Otherwise the city occupies a barren, isolated position
with few dependable sources of irrigation and limited land
suitable for farming. 
Against this setting, Siraf rose to prominence as one of the
main ports in the Persian Gulf and a centre at the heart of
commercial exchange, operating across much of the Indian Ocean. For
around 250 years, between the mid-eighth to early eleventh
centuries AD, Siraf would have ranked among the world's most
prosperous cities.
At its height, Siraf covered an area of 250 hectares with
grand multi-storied houses set back from the sea. At the centre of
the city was a large congregational mosque and bazaar, and in
the suburbs, an extensive industrial quarter where there is
evidence for the large-scale production of pottery and glass.
Elsewhere within the city evidence exists for the production or
working of iron, copper alloy, soft-stone, shell, textiles and
jewellery. Initial results from analysis of mineral samples,
undertaken in the British Museum scientific research department,
provide evidence of an unusually large garnet most likely imported
from Sri Lanka in its raw form, either for re-export or local
re-working. 
The prime source of Siraf’s wealth was derived from its role as
a centre of maritime trade in the Persian Gulf, at a time when
Indian Ocean trade as a whole underwent a period of dramatic
expansion. Levels of contact with South and Southeast Asia were
increased, while for the first time, regular direct voyages were
made between the Persian Gulf, China and East Africa.
Between 1966 and 1973 six seasons of excavation were undertaken
at Siraf by the British Institute of Persian Studies and the
Iranian Archaeological Services under the direction of Dr David
Whitehouse (see below for selected publications). During the
excavation large areas of well-preserved architecture were exposed
at locations distributed across the city, during which several
million objects were recovered. Of those finds exported to Britain,
the largest portion was deposited and registered within the British
Museum. Other finds are currently housed in at least 10 different
institutions in three different continents, including a large body
of the finds in Tehran.
Objectives:
The British Museum Siraf Project began in 2007
as a two-year research initiative supported by the British
Institute of Persian Studies. The aim of the project was to provide
a complete catalogue of the excavated finds from Siraf in the
British Museum. The collection of over 20,000 artefacts from Siraf
represents one of the largest archaeological assemblages held by
the Museum's Middle East department. Before the project began the
finds from Siraf were unregistered and information on the
collection remained limited.
All of the finds and samples from Siraf in the
British Museum are now registered and entered on the Museum’s
central database. These records form the basis of further research
and analysis of the collection and serve as a primary record of the
objects themselves. Specification, descriptions and images of the
finds from Siraf can now be accessed by searching the
Collection database online.
A further central objective of the project was
to use the study of the finds to characterise and illustrate the
full range of materials typically represented at a major Early
Islamic (about seventh to eleventh century) port in the
Indian Ocean. Particular attention has been given to the ceramics,
which account for approxi
mately half of the
collection. Early Islamic pottery manufactured within the
Persian Gulf region has been recovered from coastal sites
distributed throughout the Indian Ocean from the southern tip of
Japan to South Africa. By improving our understanding of pottery
from a single influential port, we are able to appreciate
interactions that took place over a far broader geographic
area.
As part of the work on the pottery it was
possible to lay out all 10,000 sherds in the collection at one time
and to use this opportunity to make considerable refinements to the
classification of the assemblage. As part of this process all
recurrent forms were categorised and a small selection made for
each form for the purposes of illustration. Finds illustration was
completed largely by Mrs Mohaddeseh Mansoury Razi who joined the
project from Iran for three months in 2008 as Iran Heritage
Foundation Fellow to the British Museum.
The information that has been recorded about
the finds from Siraf is being brought together for publication as a
British Institute of Persian Studies monograph. This will include
an overview of the collection together with a selection of
specialist reports on individual find categories.
The next stage of the project, begun in 2009
and continuing to 2012, involves analysing this information.
Seth Priestman, who directed the British Museum Siraf Project, is
currently undertaking this research as an Arts and Humanities
Research Council Collaborative Doctoral Award between the British
Museum and the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of
Southampton.
Further information:
The British Institute of Persian Studies: www.bips.ac.uk
International Congress on Siraf port: www.sirafcongress.ir/index.html
Publications
S.M.N. Priestman ‘The rise of Siraf: long-term development of
trade emporia within the Persian Gulf’. In Proceedings of the
International Congress of Siraf Port, November 14 - 16, 2005.
Bushehr: Bushehr Branch of Iranology Foundation & Bushehr
University of Medical Sciences, 2005, 137-56
V.F. Piacentini, Merchants,
Merchandise and Military Power in the Persian Gulf
(Suriyanj/Shakriyaj-Siraf), (Rome, Atti della Accademia
Nazionale dei Lincei, Serie IX, Vol. III(2), 1992)
N.M. Lowick, Siraf XV. The Coins and
Monumental Inscriptions, (London, The British Institute of
Persian Studies, 1985)
D. Whitehouse, Siraf III. The
Congregational Mosque and Other Mosques from the Ninth to the
Twelfth Centuries (London, The British Institute of Persian
Studies, 1980)
D. Whitehouse, ‘Excavations at Siraf. First-Sixth Interim
Reports’, Iran, 6-12, (1968-74)
News
7th International Congress of the Ancient Near
East
12 – 16 April 2010, British Museum
Seth Priestman will be presenting a paper entitled ‘Siraf and
the Abbasid Trade Boom Phenomena: Quantitative Ceramic Evidence’ in
the megacities session.
Images (from top):
- Seth Priestman, director of the British Museum Siraf
Project, arranging material prior to registration
- Deep trenches at Siraf cut down through the Great Mosque
foundation platform exposing parts of an earlier structure
interpreted as a palace or fort
- A view looking out across Siraf
towards modern Tahiri with the excavations of the great mosque in
the foreground.
- Unglazed pottery from Siraf laid en masse for sorting by
class and form
- Pottery illustrations for the forthcoming catalogue drawn
by the Iran Heritage Foundation Fellow, Mrs Mohaddeseh
Mansoury Razi.