Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

Curator of 
Middle Eastern coins Department:
Coins and Medals

 

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis is responsible for the British Museum’s collection of pre-Islamic Iranian coins (from the third century BC until the middle of the seventh century AD), which includes both Parthian and Sasanian coins. She also looks after coins of the Islamic world beginning with the Umayad and Abbasid period and including coins of the Samanid and Buyid, Seljuk, Mamluk, Ayubid and Fatimid, Ilkhanid and Timurid, Safavid and Qajar dynasties

Vesta is also involved in two major coin projects. The Sasanian Coin Project is a collaborative project with the National Museum of Iran in Tehran which aims to produce catalogues of the Sasanian coins of the third to seventh centuries AD in the collections in Tehran and London. The Parthian Coin Project is a multi-institutional project with will catalogue coins of the third century BC to the third century AD in London, Vienna, Tehran, Paris, Berlin and the American Numismatic Society New York.

Contact

vcurtis@thebritishmuseum.ac.uk
+44 (0)20 7323 8272

Current projects

Previous projects

  • Splendor Of Isfahan: coins from Iran, 2009

  • Iran before Islam: religion and propaganda, AD 224-651, (2006)

Honorary positions

  • President of the British Institute of Persian Studies and Secretary of the Royal Numismatic Society.

Recent publications

V. S. Curtis, Persian Myths (London, The British Museum Press, 1993, 1996, 2000, 2005)

V. S. Curtis, Birth of the Persian Empire, with S. Stewart (eds.), (London and New York, I.B. Tauris 2005)

V. S. Curtis, Persian Love Poetry, with S. Canby, (London, The British Museum Press, 2005, 2006, 2007)

V. S. Curtis, The Age of the Parthians, with S. Stewart (eds.), (London and New York, I.B. Tauris, 2007)

V. S. Curtis, ‘The legacy of ancient Persia’, in J. Curtis and N. Tallis, Forgotten Empire. The World of Ancient Persia (London, The British Museum Press, 2005) pp. 250-7

V. S. Curtis, ‘The Iranian revival’, in V.S. Curtis and S. Stewart (eds.), The Age of the Parthians (London, New York, I.B.Tauris, 2007) pp. 1-25

V.S Curtis, The Rise Of Islam, with S. Stewart (eds.), (London, New York, I.B.Tauris, 2009)

V.S Curtis, The Sasanian Era, with S. Stewart (eds.), (London, New York, I.B. Tauris, 2008)

V.S. Curtis, ‘The Frataraka Coins of Persis; Bridging the Gap between Achaemenid and Sasanian Persia’, in J. Curtis and S.J. Simpson, The World of Achaemenid Persia (London and New York, I.B. Tauris, 2010) pp. 379-394

V.S. Curtis, ‘Religious Iconography on Ancient Iranian Coins’, in J. Cribb and G. Herrmann, After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam (The British Academy, Oxford University Press, 2007) pp.413-434

V.S Curtis, From Persepolis to the Punjab : Exploring ancient Afghanistan and Pakistan, with E. Errington (British Museum Press 2007)

V. S Curtis, ‘The British and archaeology in nineteenth-century Persia’, in E. Errington and V. S Curtis, From Persepolis to the Punjab: Exploring ancient Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan (British Museum Press 2007) pp. 166-178

 
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