Until very recently, Singaporeans thought their island had been nothing but an idyllic fishing village prior to the arrival of the British in 1819. Little did they know that underneath their feet lay the remains of an ancient kingdom.
The excavation of the Empress Place site between April and mid-June 1998.
In 1984, Dr. John Miksic led an archaeological dig on Fort Canning, uncovering treasures which had been hidden under a meter of soil for six centuries. The discovery of these artefacts turned the “sleepy fishing village” image of ancient Singapore on its head. The team uncovered thousands of glass beads and bangles, exquisite Chinese ceramics and the remains of gold ornaments. These artefacts revealed that an elite class lived on the hill in the 14th Century and gave credence to the legends from the Malay Annals that describe a royal palace on the summit.
Since that inaugural dig, periodic excavations around the colonial and civic quarter of Singapore have uncovered a plethora of artefacts which confirm that a thriving, cosmopolitan trading port existed on Singapore island six hundred years ago. Among the artefacts recovered so far are hundreds of Chinese copper coins, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai ceramics, carnelian beads from India, copper and iron remains from the forges of local metal smiths and a carved stone human head. This archaeological evidence helps us piece together the story of the ancient kingdom of Temasek. But much of the story still needs to be uncovered. The more artefacts we have from different sites in Singapore, the clearer a picture we can recreate of the city as a whole. Since 2006, Mr. Lim Chen Sian has directed numerous excavations in the area of the Padang with the aim of salvaging as many traces of the 14th-century city as possible. Dr. Miksic and Dr. Goh Geok Yian have continued excavations on Fort Canning, and jointly supervise analysis of the artifacts recovered at the NUS archaeological laboratory.".
The first archaeology lab was set up in the Hill Street building (now MICA) where the oral history department and National Archives were before they moved to their present location. In the mid-1990s, the laboratory moved to the Fort Canning center which oversees the green. The lab was to stay on Fort Canning Hill until 2010 when it moves to its present location in Kent Ridge at the National University of Singapore. In 2010 Singapore's first archaeology programme was established at the National University of Singapore's Southeast Asian Studies programme for continuing research into Singapore's ancient past. The Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) declared its plan to set up an archaeology unit which activities will not be limited to archaeological research, but will extend to collaborative research in the Southeast Asian region. In January 2010, the archaeology team excavated at the site of the future National Art Gallery (former Supreme Court and City Hall buildings) in downtown Singapore unveiling significant remains from the ancient Temasek period.In April 2010 Prof. Miksic and Dr. Goh conducted another excavation in the Spice Garden on Fort Canning, yielding additional materials from the precolonial era.
Artefact Highlights:
Golden Jewelry from the Forbidden Hill
In 1928, a cache of gold ornaments was discovered at Fort Canning Hill during excavation works for the construction of a reservoir. Stylistically the ornaments have been dated to the mid-14th Century, the time setting for World of Temasek. This armlet bears the motif of the Hindu kala,a god symbolizing time and destruction which figures prominently in pre-Angkor and Angkorian lintels, Javanese and Balinese (Banaspati) art and temple motifs.. It is possible these ornaments were worn by a member the royal family of Temasek, who buried them in the face of imminent invasion. Unfortunately many of the ornaments including a jeweled clasp disappeared during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. The remaining jewelry is now part of the collection of the history gallery in the National Museum of Singapore.
The Singapore Stone
The Singapore Stone, which was inscribed with fifty lines of ancient text, originally stood at the entrance of the Singapore River, near the present-day Fullerton Hotel. The boulder was blown up by British engineers in the 19th century to clear and widen the passageway at the river mouth. The inscription covered a face of the boulder which had been split into two, but still has not been deciphered. Scholars differ in their views on the date and the language. It has been variously dated from the 10th to the 14th century, and is suspected to be a variant of old Sumatran script. Legend links the stone to the legendary story of the 14th-century strongman Badang, who is said to have thrown a massive stone to the mouth of the Singapore River. A remnant of the Singapore stone is now a treasured artifact of the National Museum of Singapore.
Chinese "Compass" Bowl
These ceramic fragments are part of unique and important find. The underglaze design of these sherds clearly shows the compass directions, telling us that this bowl was meant to be used as a compass. Ancient Chinese mariners and geomancers would pierce a piece of cork with a needle and float it on a bowl filled with water or mercury.The magnetized needle would rotate, indicating the north-south orientation when it came to a standstill. This is the only known example of this type of ancient Chinese compass ever discovered and thus is an incredibly important historical artefact. It now resides in theNational University of Singapore Museum’s Southeast Asian Ceramics Gallery.
Yuan Blue & White Stemcup
A fragment of a blue and white stemcup possibly for wine, of a type used mainly by the Chinese elite, turned up at the Fort Canning Park site. This shows that the elite class living on the hill could afford the best products of the Chinese kilns at Jingdezhen. Perhaps it was owned by a denizen of the royal palace at the “hollow summit”, as described by 14th-century Chinese traveler Wang Dayuan.
Winged Rider Statue
At the Empress Place site, archaeologists uncovered a small figure of a man riding a horse. The head was not recovered. Dubbed the “Headless Horseman” by Dr. John Miksic, the rider is wearing what appears to be a sarong around his lower body and sits on either a winged horse or a horse with a winged saddle. Analysis revealed it is made of lead, which makes it the only ancient lead statue ever found in the whole of Southeast Asia. Various theories have been put forward for the purpose of this statue, including a depiction of an ancestor of the rulers of Temasek who in the Sejarah Melayu (The Malay Annals) emerged from the ocean on a winged sea-horse.
“Peg Man”
Discovered at the St. Andrew’s dig site, this stone peg with a human head, dubbed “peg man” -- in a way symbolizes what we still do not know about the kingdom of Temasek. Experts can only guess as to its purpose – was it a fruit-pitter? A game piece? A fastener? Hopefully subsequent digs and analysis will shed light on this enigmatic artefact.
