Temasek History Research Centre

25/09/2023

New issue of Temasek Working Paper Series – “The So-Called ‘Kāla Head’ Armband of Temasek: A Preliminary Report” by Natalie S.Y. Ong.

This paper focuses on the armband that was unearthed in 1928 on Fort Canning Hill in Singapore as part of a cache of eleven ornaments. The initial attempt to identify the objects attributed them to East Javanese origin, and the motif on the armband as a ‘Kāla head’.

For nearly a century since, this attribution has prevailed. The present study, the first and only archaeometallurgical analysis of ancient Temasek’s gold ornaments to date, challenges this assumption through a close technical and scientific examination of the armband’s manufacture in combination with a detailed stylistic analysis. Read more at https://www.iseas.edu.sg/category/articles-commentaries/temasek-working-paper-series/

ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute

17/12/2022

Time for some weekend reading! Our fifth issue, Temasek Working Paper No. 5: 2022 – "Neither Indigenous nor Foreign: Reconceptualising the Port Cities of Southeast Asia" is now out 😄

Abstract:
A dichotomy opposing the foreign and the indigenous prevails in the historiography describing early modern Southeast Asia. This is problematic when applied to the region’s port cities, which find themselves paradoxically celebrated as indigenous expressions of cosmopolitanism. In particular, cosmopolitanism has been used as a marker of dynamism, when instead it should be interrogated. How were the boundaries between foreignness and indigeneity negotiated? A survey of three well-known 18th-century sources makes clear that foreignness and indigeneity were not dichotomous, but part of a spectrum on which populations experienced displacement, hybridisation and subjugation. The conceptualisation of port cities as the accretive outcomes of these continuing processes offers a way of stepping beyond the limitations of ethnic, nationalist, colonial, and post-colonial historiographical paradigms.

Access this paper by following this link:
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/category/articles-commentaries/temasek-working-paper-series/

21/08/2022

30/05/2022

Our webinar this morning! Dr Natalie Ong sharing her research on the Fort Canning Hill gold ornaments and offering us new clues to their origins, and the time of Temasek and its peoples.

27/05/2022

“That in gold clasps locks in the golden story.”
Join us this coming Monday, 30 May 2022, 10 am (+8 GMT) as Dr. Natalie shares with us the story of gold artefacts in ancient Singapore!

Sign up now via the link below!
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/mec-events/the-gold-ornaments-of-temasek/

Image Credits: Collection of the National Museum of Singapore, National Heritage Board.

18/05/2022

Striking gold in Singapore? ✨

This was the very experience when engineers excavated Fort Canning Hill in 1928, retrieving a series of gold ornaments from the site. But what significance do these golden finds hold and what more can they tell us today ?

Join Dr Natalie Ong on 30 May 2022, 10 am (+8 GMT) as she shares with us her latest research into these timeless pieces and show how its artistry, lustre and appeal help shed light on ancient Temasek.

Sign up via the link below! 👇👇
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/mec-events/the-gold-ornaments-of-temasek/

23/04/2022

The dark space of SG’s history ? Not quite! Don’t forget to join us this coming Monday as we delve into the mystery of 18th-century Singapore!

Sign up below 👇🏼
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/mec-events/rebel-princes-sea-skirmishes-and-a-royal-plot-18th-century-singapores-changing-fortunes-in-perspective/

12/04/2022

What else was happening in and around Singapore before 1819? 🧐 Join our THRC Research Officer Benjamin Khoo as he unravels Singapore’s episodic history in the 18th century through Dutch archival records!

Sign up via the link below:
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/mec-events/rebel-princes-sea-skirmishes-and-a-royal-plot-18th-century-singapores-changing-fortunes-in-perspective/

03/04/2022

Continuing our exciting theme, join us this coming Wednesday, 6 April 2022, 10.30 am (GMT +8), as our panel of distinguished speakers speak about the maritime excavation of the two shipwrecks in Singapore waters! 🌊
Be a part of history in the making by signing up via the link below! 👇🏼

https://www.iseas.edu.sg/mec-events/situating-two-historical-shipwrecks-in-singapore-waters-findings-and-implications/

27/03/2022

The second wreck excavated by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Dr. Michael Flecker off the easterly outcropping of Singapore dates to the 14th century and contains one of the largest blue-and-white ceramic finds salvaged from the sea! Read all about this fantastic discovery of the ship and its fascinating cargo which draw parallels with the material record of ancient Temasek!

Access this paper by following this link:
https://www.iseas.edu.sg/category/articles-commentaries/temasek-working-paper-series/