Fragments of the Past
March 14, 2018
Did you know that women in 14th century Singapore used to make their own pottery for cooking?
Fragments of kitchenware were among the Temasek-period artefacts uncovered at an excavation at the Singapore Cricket Club. Currently, 2,000 items discovered in the dig have been listed in an online database developed by NUS Press, and the complete list will eventually comprise a total of 4,998 key artefacts. This project is led by NUS archaeologist Professor John Miksic (Department of Southeast Asian Studies) and NTU historian Assistant Professor Goh Geok Yian.
Peter Schoppert, director of NUS Press, explains that the digitization of these archaeological findings would allow for scholars in related disciplines to harness the data for their own analysis and research work. Yet the academic community would not be the sole beneficiary of this project. Mr Alvin Tan, assistant chief executive of policy and community of the National Heritage Board, adds that this freely available data will also present the Singaporean public with “information and insights into our archaeological past.”
You can read the full article here.