Singapore and the Silk Road of the Sea 1300-1800

Conclusion: Ancient Singapore, Urbanism, and Commerce

434 conclUSion became abandoned by all but a few people who lived on boats. Dutch policy of forcing traders to call at Batavia in west Java may have been partly responsible for the end of Singapore’s ancient history, but trade all over Asia contracted severely during the seventeenth century; perhaps urban populations declined throughout the region. If more people had to become self-reliant since they were unable to rely on interdependent commercial networks, they would have been tempted to return to rural areas and resume subsistence activities to make a living. After a slumber of 200 years, Singapore suddenly came back to life in 1819. This awakening was catalyzed by a man who was convinced (correctly as it turns out) that it was possible to revive an ancient center of Malay culture and commerce. This revival could not have taken place unless Singapore possessed the necessary attributes for such development: strategic location, fair and liberal government, and most importantly a hardworking and cosmopolitan population that was able to live together harmoniously despite a multiplicity of cultures, languages, and religions. Singapore’s economy in periods of prosperity has been based on services rather than manufacturing or political control of territory. Modern Singapore’s society closely reflects that which lived on the same island 700 years ago. Technology and geopolitical environments may change, but some of the qualities necessary for the success of a port-city have remained constant over thousands of years. AncienT SingApore’S urBAniSm What would it have been like to live in fourteenth-century Singapore? Urban life can take many different patterns. Different cultures allocate urban space in different ways: some emphasize religious activities; others may stress political institutions, commerce, manufacturing, settlement, defence, recreation, or even agriculture. In order to understand the life of any ancient city thoroughly, that city has to be studied in detail. These different emphases in the use of space are correlated with many other features of life that are of utmost importance to the people who live in cities. To obtain a complete portrait of the use of space in an ancient city is very difficult. Reaching this goal requires a systematic sampling programme, relatively complete preservation of sites representing different types of activities, and laborious processing of artifacts which individually seem ridiculously humble and ordinary. In large quantities, however, the conclusions that can be drawn from simple potsherds can be more powerful than any temple ruin or statue, no matter how beautiful or impressive. As surprising as it may seem, given the intensity of development that has taken place in the late twentieth century, Singapore still fulfills these conditions. There are several reasons why the study of ancient Singapore has been more fruitful than anyone might have imagined. One is the concentrated nature of its remains: the ancient city seems to have been confined to a well-defined area, bounded by the Singapore River, Fort Canning Hill, Stamford Road, and the former coastline. Research projects in Chinatown and Bras Basah Park (now the site of the Singapore 13.01, 13.02 Construction in the downtown area of Singapore often exposes fourteenth-century remains. When Hill Street, at the foot of Fort Canning, was widened in the 1990s, it cut into the compound of the Armenian Church. The clear soil stratigraphy shows that this area had not been disturbed since the 1300s. The churchyard has high archaeological potential, which has yet to be examined. The church is a national monument and is not threatened by development. If undisturbed portions of downtown Singapore are developed, it would be important to allow archaeological research to proceed first. Singapore’s archaeological heritage is of considerable significance to the study of the fourteenth century of Southeast Asia as a whole, and should be preserved for the benefit of generations of Singaporeans to come. 436 conclUSion Management University) failed to produce evidence that fourteenth-century urbanization spread outside these boundaries. This is quite understandable: the south bank of the Singapore River was a swamp during ancient times (it was reclaimed in the 1820s), and the swampy area between Stamford Road and Kampong Gelam was so forbidding that people in the 1820s were afraid to enter it. This concentration of population and human activity in a well-defined area was not common in ancient Southeast Asia. The construction of permanent defences, mentioned by Wang Dayuan in the 1330s and still standing in the 1820s, was...