{"id":961,"date":"2015-07-28T03:46:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-28T03:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/?p=961"},"modified":"2020-10-21T03:47:23","modified_gmt":"2020-10-21T03:47:23","slug":"archaeologists-in-need-of-funds-and-resources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/2015\/07\/28\/archaeologists-in-need-of-funds-and-resources\/","title":{"rendered":"Archaeologists in need of funds and resources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday 27 July 2015, The Straits Times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Singapore’s two archaeologists,\u00a0dogged for years by lack of interest\u00a0in the field and scant resources, are\u00a0hoping the Government will pump\u00a0“several million dollars” into the discipline,\u00a0to pay for more staff and activities\u00a0over the next 50 years.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim Chen Sian, who led a recent\u00a0Empress Place dig which yielded\u00a0artefacts such as centuries-old\u00a0Chinese imperial grade ceramics, is\u00a0also creating a registry of archaeological\u00a0sites so people can be alerted\u00a0to their historical value before\u00a0the wrecking balls descend.<\/p>\n

The authorities are also keen for\u00a0archaeology to play a bigger role in\u00a0piecing together Singapore’s past.<\/p>\n

Mr Alvin Tan, assistant chief executive\u00a0of policy and development at\u00a0the National Heritage Board\u00a0(NHB), said talks about potential archaeological\u00a0sites are under way.<\/p>\n

“Archaeology matters because it\u00a0offers insights into our past, allows\u00a0us to better understand our history\u00a0and how far we’ve progressed as a\u00a0people and a nation,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim works for the Nalanda-Sriwijaya\u00a0Centre at the Institute of\u00a0Southeast Asian Studies (Iseas).<\/p>\n

The other archaeologist here is\u00a0veteran John Miksic of the National\u00a0University of Singapore.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim’s work is supported by research\u00a0officers Aaron Kao and\u00a0Michael Ng while Dr Miksic, 69, has\u00a0the assistance of Dr Geok Yian Goh,\u00a0an assistant history professor at\u00a0Nanyang Technological University.<\/p>\n

Mr Ng said archaeology is “neglected”,\u00a0adding: “There’s a lot of\u00a0heritage material under us to plug\u00a0gaps in existing historical sources\u00a0but we’re constantly battling with\u00a0time ro clear backlogs of previous\u00a0digs. We need more resources.”<\/p>\n

As well as digs and research work,\u00a0government investment could fund\u00a0at least five archaeologists and four\u00a0part-time research assistants, according to 45-year-old Mr Lim.<\/p>\n

There is no publicly available data\u00a0on how much Singapore spends on archaeology but an excavation like\u00a0the recent 10-week-long dig at Empress\u00a0Place was budgeted at
\n$70,000 by the NHB.<\/p>\n

Last year, Hong Kong, which has\u00a0about six full-time archaeologists,\u00a0spent $153,500 on excavations and\u00a0$26,000 on its Archaeological Society.\u00a0Malaysia’s Centre for Global Archaeological\u00a0Research got about\u00a0$3.6 million in government funding\u00a0in 2009. Even Brunei, a country\u00a0with a population of 400,000, has\u00a0four dedicated archaeologists.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim hopes future teams here\u00a0will have experts in areas such as underwater\u00a0archaeology, anthropology,\u00a0and geo-archaeology. “There’s a\u00a0big hurry to build up a strong Singaporean\u00a0team,” he said.<\/p>\n

Heritage experts believe the field\u00a0should come under a government\u00a0department, which can develop the\u00a0existing infrastructure, come up\u00a0with guidelines and police the field.<\/p>\n

The authorities have supported\u00a0archaeological research here since\u00a0the first dig in 1984 at Fort Canning.<\/p>\n

Recent examples supported by\u00a0the NHB include excavations at Adam\u00a0Park from 2010 to 2013 and the\u00a0Victoria Concert Hall in 2011.<\/p>\n

Mr Lim said the NHB has been doing\u00a0more for the scene over the\u00a0years, such as by setting up an impact assessment and mitigation division\u00a0in 2013, which works with archaeologists\u00a0at sites of interest before\u00a0they are developed.<\/p>\n

”We’ve been running on passion\u00a0and ideology but we need to elevate\u00a0the level of professionalism. We\u00a0can’t always be digging into our\u00a0own savings, working 12-hour days\u00a0and relying on volunteers,” he said.<\/p>\n

Dr Miksic wants Singapore to be a\u00a0regional hub for the field.<\/p>\n

”We have developed a system of\u00a0analysis over 30 years. We can\u00a0work together to build a picture of\u00a0South-east Asia,” he said.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Many areas with\u00a0archaeological significance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Areas such as Raffles’ Landing Site, Kampong\u00a0Glam, Pulau Ubin, Pulau Tekong, Sembawang,\u00a0Bedok and East Coast have been deemed significant\u00a0by archaeologists.<\/p>\n

Portuguese maps show that East Coast, for instance,\u00a0was an area filled with settlements- such as\u00a0a village at Sungei Bedok – in the 1600s. So far, excavations\u00a0in Singapore have recovered artefacts from\u00a0the Temasek Age, of which almost no written\u00a0records exist, and have proven that the settlement’s\u00a0history dates as far back as the 14th century.<\/p>\n

However, the majority of digs here have been\u00a0for rescue purposes, with archaeologists scrambling\u00a0to organise excavations upon hearing of new\u00a0construction projects.<\/p>\n

In the case of Empress Place, for instance, archaeologists\u00a0rushed to salvage three tonnes of\u00a0700-year-old artefacts as the deadline to develop\u00a0the area into an integrated arts, culture and lifestyle\u00a0precinct loomed.<\/p>\n

The archaeologists discovered that Temasek\u00a0could have had an established government with a\u00a0ruler as early as the late 14th century, through the\u00a0discovery of imperial-grade ceramics bestowed\u00a0by the Ming Dynasty emperor Hongwu on overseas\u00a0leaders.<\/p>\n

These recovered Empress Place artefacts are in\u00a0the process of being catalogued.<\/p>\n

It will take another three years to analyse them.<\/p>\n

By Melody Zaccheus for The Straits Times<\/strong><\/em>,\u00a0melodyz@sph.com.sg\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

View the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday 27 July 2015, The Straits Times. Singapore’s two archaeologists,\u00a0dogged for years by lack of interest\u00a0in the field and scant resources, are\u00a0hoping the Government will pump\u00a0“several million dollars” into the discipline,\u00a0to pay for more staff and activities\u00a0over the next 50 years. Mr Lim Chen Sian, who led a recent\u00a0Empress Place dig which yielded\u00a0artefacts such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,39],"tags":[63,79,83],"class_list":["post-961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-staff","tag-archaeology","tag-in-the-news","tag-john-miksic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/961\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/sea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}