The British Museum Siraf project

Project leader: Seth M. N. Priestman

Department: Middle East

Project start date: 2007

End date: 2009

Project funded by: the British Institute of Persian Studies, the British Museum Challenge fund

External partners: the British Institute of Persian Studies

Description:

The site of Siraf is situated in southern Iran on a barren isolated stretch of Persian Gulf coast backed by rugged mountains. Despite the site’s setting, for a period of 150-200 years between the ninth and eleventh centuries AD, Siraf emerged as one of the wealthiest cities in the world.

At the height of the city’s prosperity Siraf spread out over an area of 200 hectares with grand multi-storied houses set back from the sea shore. At the centre of the city lay a massive congregational mosque and bazaar, and in the suburbs, an extensive industrial quarter where there is evidence of a wide range of manufacturing activities including pottery, glass, metal, soft-stone, textiles, beads and jewellery.

The prime source of the city’s wealth was derived from its role as the main centre of maritime trade in the Persian Gulf at a time when Indian Ocean trade underwent a dramatic expansion. For the first time in history merchants from the Persian Gulf started to make direct voyages to China and to maintain regular contact with Southeast Asia, India and East Africa.

Between 1966 and 1973 six seasons of excavation were undertaken at Siraf by a British/Iranian team directed by Dr David Whitehouse. During the excavation several million objects were recovered. Of those finds exported to Britain, the largest portion was deposited with the British Museum.

Objectives:

The aim of the British Museum Siraf project is to provide a complete catalogue of the around 32,000 finds from the Siraf excavations that are held at the British Museum. This catalogue will be comprised of two main elements: a finds database and a hard-copy publication.

The finds database of the Siraf collection will include a record for every object. Each record will give a range of information including: images, excavation findspot, object description, classification and dating. These records will gradually be released for public access via the British Museum website. Once the records relating to Siraf go live, it will be possible to find information associated with any object from the Siraf excavations in the British Museum, from anywhere in the world, and perform searches of objects using a number of different criteria including material, date, class, place of origin and location within the excavation.

The second integral element of the work on the Siraf finds in the British Museum will be a published catalogue. As well as itemising the objects from the Siraf excavations in the British Museum, the publication will provide a platform for the synthesis of the collection and the starting point for analytical work on the finds.

During the course of the project a number of sub-studies will be undertaken using scientific techniques to look at specific parts of the collection. Examples include the chemical analysis of residues found inside cooking pots that can reveal the types of food that were being prepared.

Further information:

The British Institute of Persian Studies: www.bips.ac.uk

International Congress on Siraf port: www.sirafcongress.ir/index.html

Images (from top):

• Deep trenches at Siraf cut down through the Great Mosque foundation platform exposing parts of an earlier structure interpreted as a palace or fort.
• Seth Priestman, director of the British Museum Siraf Project, arranging material for photography.
• A view looking out across Siraf towards modern Tahiri with the excavations of the great mosque in the foreground.