via IIAS Newsletter, Spring 2023: A study by Natalie Ong takes a closer look (literally) at the gold ornaments found in ancient Temasek.
On the 7th of July 1928, during excavations to clear the summit of Fort Canning Hill in Singapore, a trove of 11 gold objects was unearthed. Not long after the discovery, Sir Richard O. Winstedt, noted historian of Malaya, reported on the find in a four-page article. The Dutch archaeologist Dr. P.V. van Stein Callenfels was consulted on the identification of the artefacts, and they were ascribed to the East Javanese Majapahit period (late 13th to early 16th centuries CE). For almost 100 years, this label has prevailed and been regularly repeated to justify Majapahit hegemony over this part of the archipelago, thus providing Temasek’s raison d’être.
A Visiting Fellowship programme at the Temasek History Research Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute Singapore, provided the opportunity to review the existing ornaments and their identification, and to submit them to technical analysis. The scientific studies were conducted in collaboration with the Heritage Conservation Centre (HCC), the institution responsible for the conservation and preservation of Singapore’s National Collection, under the auspices of the National Heritage Board (NHB). 1 The original cache consisted of a pair of armbands with flexible chains, a conch and disc clasp, an elliptical ornament, an inscribed finger-ring, and six rings. Only three of the 11 ornaments remain today (one of the armlets and two of the six rings [Fig. 1]), most having disappeared during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore in 1948. 2 The armlet was the subject of the paper “The so-called ‘kala’ head armband of Temasek: A preliminary report,” soon to appear in the Temasek Working Paper Series. 3 Natalie S.Y. Ong, forthcoming, “The so-called ‘kala’ head armband of Temasek: A preliminary report”, Temasek Working Paper Series
Source: Style and Substance: Investigating the Gold Ornaments of Ancient Temasek | IIAS
