During our one month attachment at ISEAS, we had the opportunity to attend multiple lectures and do many hands on activities that helped us nurture an understanding of archaeology as a discipline and appreciate archaeology and history in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
This activity's goal is to allow us to sort, package and arrange real artifacts that were found during the empress place excavation in 2015. This required out analytical skills, precision and patience as there were hundreds of artifacts that we needed to sort. Before we were tasked with this assignment, we were taught the basics of how to identify different types of ceramic and the different parts of a vessel so that we knew how to identify the artifacts. Next, we were given a box of artifacts from the empress place excavation and we had to catergorise each sherd into different categories based on the type of material and which part of the vessel it belonged to. After that, we packaged, labeled and keyed the different bags into their database.
It can be fired as low as 600 °C, and is normally fired below 1200°C. It has had a continuous history from the Neolithic period to today. It is the roughest material with many pores. When lightly tapped, it produces a low pitch. A general body formulation for contemporary earthenware is 25% kaolin, 25% ball clay, 35% quartz and 15% feldspar.
It can be fired from 1,100°C to 1,200 °C. Stoneware originated in China as early as 1400 bce (Shang dynasty). A fine white stoneware, Yue ware, produced during the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce) and perfected during the Tang dynasty (618–907 ce), has an olive or brownish green feldspathic glaze and belongs to the celadon family.
It can be fired from 1,200°C and 1,400 °C. The toughness, strength, and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises mainly from vitrification and the formation of the mineral mullite within the body at these high temperatures. It dates all the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC). It is the smoothest material with the least pores and will most likely be glazed. It produces a high pitch when tapped lightly.
This project aims to present our knowledge on archaeology and research findings. We were tasked to create a poster on any type of archaeology that we were interested in and share the information that we researched on with the public. Min Yi and I decided to do our poster on environmental archaeology, specifically focusing on soil and how we can use it to find out more about Singapore's ancient coasts and pollen analysis. We also decided to design our poster in a comic style so that it would be more engaging and interesting for the reader. This not only challenged our research skills but also deign and creative thinking skills as we had to make the poster interesting, informative and brief all at the same time.
During our attachment at ISEAS, we multiple lectures that taught us many different things about archaeology as it is a complex discipline with many different types and there was a never-ending list of things that we could learn about it. Our lectures were done by many highly respected archaeology researchers such as Dr Tai Yew Seng, Dr Michael Flecker and Dr Károly Belényesy.
On the 4th day, we were tasked to research and present on a excavation from one specific type of archaeology that we were interested in and find out the ethical debate over it. I did mine on the Eregli E Shipwreck found in the Black Sea. It is a 2300-year-old shipwreck found at the black sea, dating all the way back to the ancient Greek and Roman times. It was found in 2011 containing skeletal material among ceramic material. Although archaeologists were not able to recover the bones successfully the issue of grave robbing still came up. The question on whether Archaeologists should move dead or put them up for display in the pursuit of knowledge were raised by the public, particularly on the internet.
This assignment required us to pick out unique pieces of shreds that we found during our shred handling exercises, photograph it and write thoughtful captions for Them. This required us to use our knowledge of archaeology over the past few days or weeks to analyse the shreds and write descriptive captions.
This activity allowed us to be an archaeologist for a day and go through the steps of what to do during an actual excavation. This required us to use all our knowledge that we learnt about archaeology so that we could replicate the a real excavation as accurately as possible. I was not able to experience the mock excavation due to an external programme on the same day.
On 23 January, we went on a field trip where we visited multiple past excavation sites and museums with numerous artifacts in Singapore. At each site, we were taught how the excavation took place (the digging plan), the history of the place, the artifacts found and how they made the excavation as efficient as possible so they would not clash with construction work.
The open air excavation site that we were brought to is located between the Keramat Iskandar Shah, where an ancient ruler of Singapura is believed to be buried, and the Old Christian Cemetery, now known as Fort Canning Green. There are three soil layers that we observed. At the top layer or Layer 1 are the remnants of the foundation of a lighthouse keepers’ house built around 1900. Below that at Layer 2 were artefacts from the 19th and 20th century. Layer 3, with yellowish soil, contained artefacts from the 15th and 14th centuries.
In National museum, we visited the Singapore History Gallery where it contain artifacts dating all the way back to 1299 to the present. One interesting artifact was the Singapore Stone. The large slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, has an undecipherable inscription. Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in old Javanese or in Sanskrit, which suggested a possibility that the island was an extension of the Majapahit civilization in the past.
Located within the historic colonial district, the Supreme Court and the City Hall are built upon the ancient 14th settlement of Temasek. Eleven test units were excavated, revealing pockets of information from the 14th century city, as well as artifacts from the Second World War. Over 300kg of artifacts from the Temasek period were recovered from the salvage excavation.
The Victoria Concert Hall is located on the northern bank of the Singapore River, and sits within the commercial heart of modern and colonial Singapore, as well as the ancient settlement of 14th century Temasek. he team excavated a segment of the construction impact zone along Old Parliament Lane, recovering some 600kg of artifacts that would have otherwise been lost to the bulldozers.
In an effort to discover and preserve Singapore's rich history and heritage of the Bras Basah area, an archaeological survey of SMU's future City Campus site was conducted in 2001. Many archaeological artifacts have been found at Fort Canning and other sites in the city, providing evidence of settlements by the island natives. One interesting find was white, sticky clay found under layers of soil, indicating that there is a possibility of a kiln that could have existed in ancient Singapore.
The ACM contained many artifacts found from the Belitung Shipwreck, found in 1998 the edge of the Java Sea. It contained a remarkable cargo of more than 60,000 ceramics produced in China during the Tang dynasty, as well as luxurious objects of gold and silver. Bound for Iran and Iraq, the ship provides early proof for strong commercial links between China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
There are many misconceptions about archaeology that I am definitely guilty of having before I attended this programme due to misleading portrayals of archaeology in the media.
Examples of these misconceptions are:
During my one month attachment, I learnt that archaeology is actually the study of human activity through material culture, and does not include the study of dinosaur fossils (that is paleontology) and archaeologists are definitely not treasure hunters, they look for artifacts for the purpose of gaining precious information. I also learnt that although excavations can be painstakingly long and take week or even months to do, the sorting of the endless artifacts found as well as the research of these artifacts can take years.
During our history lessons, we hand fed a list of facts of the topic by the teachers. During this attachment, we learnt how history is so much more than a list of things that happened in the past. This is because we had the opportunity to experience and literally touch history (such as artifacts from the 14th century) and go through the process of figuring out how these artifacts has a place in history. This allowed us to really understand how the facts that we learnt were obtained archaeology and the hard work done by archaeologists to obtain these artifacts. This was really eyeopening and helped by passion for history grow so much stronger.
After one month at ISEAS, my respect for archaeologists and archaeology as a discipline grew immensely. The amount of hard work and dedication that they put into their work, such as painstakingly excavating or for hours or researching for years, is definitely not an ideal job for most Singaporeans. Additionally, with Singapore's focus on STEM jobs in recent years, archaeology in Singapore is also not highly supported and funded by the government. Despite all these challenges that archaeologists face daily in their jobs, their passion and dedication for archaeology, as well as resilience, really made me respect them even more than before. It really heartens me to see how archaeologists are doing this for the purpose of obtaining more information to add to history, so that we all can know a little bit more about our complex and confusing world. As our mentor talked about his experience in archaeology, it left a bittersweet feeling in my heart. He talked about all his challenges in this field but his love for archaeology was really evident through his lectures and guidance. He said that future archaeologists might experience less difficulties compared to archaeologists now as Singapore is beginning to slowly understand the importance of its history well as archaeology, as seen from the bicentennial year projects. I think its really honorable that archaeologists are willing to endure these challenges so that they can pave the way for future archaeologists and introduce the importance of archaeology to Singapore. This experience is definitely an unforgettable one. Especially since I have a strong passion for the humanities in a STEM world, I think I would face my own challenges as well. However, I will always remember the passion and resilience the archaeologists we met during this attachment had and remind myself to never give up on my own passion. Since this attachment only lasted for one month, we barely caught a glimpse of what this field is really like in the real world. However, the things that I learnt will impact me for life and is something we can never learn anywhere else.