‘Singapura before Raffles: Archaeology and the Seas, 400BCE – 1600CE’ Conference
May 8, 2019
In line with the Bicentennial, the NUS Department of Southeast Asian Studies organised a conference on ancient harbours, titled ‘Singapura before Raffles: Archaeology and the Seas, 400BCE – 1600CE’, which was recently featured in The Straits Times.
Supported by the National Heritage Board (NHB), the conference is the second of its kind to be held in Singapore since 2004. It showcased the latest research by 18 international scholars on pre-colonial Singapore and its links to the maritime trade networks. Speakers also covered themes of economy, technology, and social context of early Southeast Asian maritime trade, the origins and growth of maritime networks in the South China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, as well as shipwrecks in the South China Sea and Java Sea.
According to conference convenor Professor John Miksic from the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and its nearby sea lanes played a crucial role in the formation of a network, which by 400BCE already spanned the coasts from northeast Africa to the western Pacific Ocean. He also stressed that the conference is timely for the Bicentennial, as it helps to show how Singapore’s success during colonial times is attributed to the faith and confidence of the people living around the nation. That is, given the right people and the right policies, Singapore can continue to be stable and play its role as a centre of maritime trade, despite having a small geography, population, and amount of resources.
Read the full article here.