- 2 months ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00These artifacts are oozing out of the ground.
00:05It's quite amazing that it still survived all these years.
00:10200 years on from Raffles' landing,
00:14archaeologists are reshaping what we know about Singapore.
00:19From uncovering evidence of ancient Singapura...
00:23It's been here for 700 years,
00:25and so whatever we find in here will be totally new discoveries.
00:29...to unearthing little-known stories of colonial Singapore...
00:34This is a very nice colonial period item.
00:37...and lingering mysteries of World War II.
00:41This was a scene of complete chaos, mayhem, catastrophe.
00:48New artifacts, new theories, new possibilities.
00:52It does rewrite history, not only of Singapore,
00:55but of all of Southeast Asia.
00:59In this episode, they're digging into the colonial era.
01:05Let's have a look.
01:07Yeah.
01:08This was quite a nice piece.
01:09I guess that's the irony, right?
01:11We know a lot about pre-modern Singapore,
01:13and we have so far not really investigated much on the colonial period.
01:19What has been lost or forgotten from the early days of modern Singapore?
01:23They helped with the building of the infrastructures,
01:25literally building up the foundation for Singapore.
01:27Nice and sandy.
01:28Nice and sandy.
01:29Nice and sandy.
01:30Looks good.
01:31No obstruction.
01:32Can definitely do...
01:33Can definitely do...
01:34Nice and sandy.
01:38Looks good.
01:39Can definitely do a unit right here.
01:40Okay.
01:41Sounds great.
01:42Okay.
01:45Sounds great.
01:47Okay.
01:48Okay.
01:49Okay.
01:50Sounds great.
01:52Okay.
01:53Okay.
01:56Okay.
02:07Alright.
02:08In the heart of downtown Singapore, nestled between skyscrapers and colonial architecture,
02:21lies one of the country's most significant sites, the Padang.
02:30This green field has provided the backdrop for many historic moments.
02:38Following the nation's independence in 1965, it hosted Singapore's first National Day Parade.
03:08Two decades earlier, thousands stood on the lawn to witness the surrender of the Japanese forces.
03:19When Singapore was a colony of the British Empire, the Padang was a hive of activity.
03:32When not in use for military drills, it was a place to watch a game of cricket or enjoy a performance by a regimental band.
03:49Today, it's the site of archaeologist Lim Chen Xian's next dig, a rare opportunity to break ground in this otherwise pristine field.
04:06Padang is a wonderful place for archaeologists because we know that at least within the last 200 years, there has been very little development.
04:16No one built a condominium or shopping mall or fairies view on it.
04:20What lies beneath the turf could tell us a lot about Singapore's history, including one event two centuries ago that changed the fate of the island forever.
04:33So, I'm standing at possibly the former shoreline, and I'm absolutely certain where I've been standing would have been where the beach meets the ocean.
04:46And I probably, if you can imagine, 200 years ago when Raffles arrived, it would probably be up to my shin in the water.
04:52Imagine all these Europeans first arriving, wearing their heavy woolens and stuff, striding ashore onto the beach.
05:01And all these local people were probably wondering, what do these guys want? What do they want with us?
05:06On the 28th of January, 1819, colonial administrator Sir Stamford Raffles and his landing party arrived in Singapore.
05:33Accounts from the time say that the inhabitants told the Tamanggong, the local chief, of their arrival.
05:48Discussions followed.
05:52And eventually, a preliminary agreement was made to establish a trading post in Singapore.
06:05And the Union Jack was hoisted.
06:13The area that's now the Padanggong was an important spot for the arrival party.
06:18So, this is the spot which, well, close to where they land, and this is where they made the encampment.
06:25I suspect, so this is where the area which Farquhar and Raffles, they signed the treaty with Tamanggong Abdulrahman and Tunggulong.
06:32The treaty of friendship.
06:342019 marks the bicentennial, or 200-year anniversary, of the British arrival in Singapore.
06:42In this dig, Chen Xian hopes to uncover artefacts from the early colonial period, a time from which there is limited archaeological record.
06:53Yeah, that's an interesting thing. I mean, we know a lot about the history, we've got records, we've got eyewitnesses accounts.
06:58But that's very little that we know about in terms of objects.
07:07Archaeology is providing a different lens, a different dimension to how we look at the past.
07:13Basically, it's based on objects, the artefacts, the material culture, the things that lies buried below ground and also above ground.
07:20People don't really realise there's a lot of archaeology beneath their feet.
07:28I'm just having a quick sift to see what we can find in here, and it's all modern-day trash.
07:38This is floor tile when they were putting in the pavement.
07:41So here's a little bracket probably from one of those F1 races when they put up their whole grandstand.
07:48I'm not so worried about this layer, because this is all very modern items.
07:52But as we go deeper, we might be able to find something from the 19th century.
07:57That's what I hope, you know, you see in the company of the colonial period.
08:00So let's see what we can find.
08:04For Chen Sien, finding 19th century artefacts would help fill gaps in the history books.
08:10While archaeologists have uncovered substantial evidence of life in 14th century Singapore,
08:20less archaeological research has been done on the 19th century, when the early colonialists arrived in Singapore.
08:27Yeah, I guess that's the irony, right?
08:29We know a lot about pre-modern Singapore, medieval Tamasic or Singapura, the port settlement.
08:35And we have so far not really investigated much on the colonial period.
08:41We know that Raffles came here 28th of January, 1819.
08:45We know on 6th of February, 1819, he signed a big treaty.
08:48There's this big ceremony here.
08:49They fired off the guns, they had a banquet, et cetera, et cetera.
08:52We know that from historical sources.
08:54But let's look at the micro-history, what was the individuals like?
09:00We know that by 1824, Singapore's population had grown to over 10,000 people.
09:07Munshi Abdullah, Raffles's secretary and interpreter, wrote a vivid account of life here.
09:15The early years on this new settlement were rather unsettling for some of its new residents.
09:24There were thousands of rats all over the district.
09:40Colonel Farquhar made an order.
09:42To anyone who kills a rat, I will give one huang.
09:45Crowds of people brought the dead rats to the colonel's place and he paid out according to his promise.
10:02Finally, the campaign against the rats came to an end.
10:06Until...
10:07Archaeologist Michael Oong is looking at the lives of early traders and settlers in Singapore.
10:31Today, Michael and these local students are cataloguing colonial-era artefacts, the first step in piecing together stories from fragments of history.
10:48In terms of colonial history, for archaeology, we are looking more towards the everybody.
10:55It's not about colonialism itself, but who were these people in the colonial period?
10:59I mean, how did they live their lives?
11:01So, I think this is most likely a European stoneware bottle.
11:06So, it's a Glasgow bottle.
11:08It's very prevalent during the colonial period.
11:11They use it to actually store maybe alcoholic drinks or even after they use it, they may use it as a water bottle.
11:18The artefacts they're sorting through were excavated from Sultan Gate in Kampong Glam.
11:27Home to Malay royalty in the early colonial era, this historic enclave was a focal point for settlers in 19th century Singapore.
11:34Kampong Glam is the location where one of the first few inhabitants of Singapore actually lived in during the early colonial period.
11:44So, in a sense, the reason why it's a significant site is we do not know much about it yet.
11:50We do not know what goes on there, who are these people essentially, and how are they related to us?
11:55Amongst the artefacts recovered are possible building materials from the homes of these early settlers.
12:04This is a rooftop. You can see it's flat.
12:07You need to compare because it's clear that the use might be the same.
12:12Sometimes, you know, some artefacts are so distant from people because to them it's so mundane, just a piece of broken ceramic.
12:21How does it relate to me?
12:25Yeah.
12:29Something like that?
12:30Yeah. Then maybe you can take care of it.
12:32Yeah.
12:34We are kind of glorified garbage collectors in some ways, but I think the biggest difference is that we make sense and we try to give information from these artefacts to others.
12:45Michael's research is helping to add to the narrative of Singapore's colonial period, beyond the version from the colonialists.
12:57So, yeah, an interesting question would be to really find out, you know, the traders who are involved in the trading.
13:06It's not just the European traders, but you have your Chinese traders, your Malay traders, your Indian traders.
13:10Somebody of the past actually helped the same piece, use the same piece, and I picked it up.
13:19It's like the particular artefact becomes like a medium, like a conduit for us to connect in that way.
13:25It looks very, very modern. It's quite interesting.
13:43It's the second day of archaeologist Lim Chen Sien's dig in the Padang, a historic green field in the Civic District.
13:55This dig is part of the team's quest to explore the colonial period, starting from 1819.
14:04Chen Sien is joined by archaeologist and friend Lucia Bianchi.
14:08It says P-U-B, that's the Public Utilities Board in Singapore.
14:15They put this brick on top of pipes.
14:18So when, supposedly, someone comes like us, we are digging down and we hit this brick.
14:23Be careful, there's a pipe underneath.
14:25So I suspect there's a water pipe under here.
14:28Oh, okay.
14:29What we've done with our recording, we can start excavating, removing away the bricks, go down a bit further.
14:39Perhaps we might be able to find the early colonial period items, so we're quite hopeful.
14:46It's been almost two full days in the heat, and they are still excavating a two-by-one metre unit at the Padang dig site.
14:53Ah, look this.
14:54This is a little...
14:56Oh, yes.
14:57You found it here?
14:58Yeah.
15:00They've hit the kind of artefact that Chen Sien is after.
15:03So this is a very nice 19th century Chinese ceramic, because it's the design from China.
15:07It's a little blue, blue and white.
15:09It's a little bow.
15:10It's a colonial period item.
15:12Oh.
15:13In archaeology, these pottery fragments are called sherds.
15:29This sherd, likely to have come from a Chinese bowl, suggests that international trading activity took place in colonial Singapore.
15:37In the years following Raffles's arrival, Chinese, Bugis, and Arab merchants and traders were drawn in waves to Singapore.
15:54Munshi Abdullah wrote of the early settlement's success.
15:58Singapore was like the sun when it has just risen, waxing stronger and stronger as it gets higher and higher.
16:14Merchants came from different countries.
16:17Merchandise poured in like a torrent, things which our grandparents never saw.
16:22As time went on, the settlement became filled with various races, plying their different trades and crafts.
16:38And the fame of Singapore spread far and wide.
16:42Many traders and merchants passed through Singapore for commerce, but others settled here permanently.
16:57Serafyan Saleh is fascinated by their stories.
17:02A history enthusiast, his research has focused on the migrant groups that grew significantly following the arrival of the British.
17:10As a history enthusiast, the only way for me to look for historical evidence is not below the ground, but above the ground.
17:20His search has brought him to Jalan Kuboor Cemetery.
17:27Untouched by modern development, there are unique relics to be studied here.
17:33Jalan Kuboor is one of the oldest, most prominent Muslim graves in Singapore.
17:37It was the closest to the Sultan's compound.
17:42So Jalan Kuboor seems to be the best place for me to look for signs of early traders.
17:50Records suggest that the last burial in this cemetery took place in the 1960s.
17:55But many of the graves date back to the 1800s.
18:02What I normally do when I enter a grave, I will look at the shape.
18:07So these shapes actually allow you to categorise where do they belong to.
18:13The grave markings have become faint with age, but Serafyan has found a way to read them.
18:19I will chalk on the tombstone.
18:24Then I will use a damp cloth and wipe it.
18:27So that's one way to reveal the inscriptions.
18:30If you're fortunate, if you're lucky, it tells you what date this person was buried.
18:35The script is definitely Arabic.
18:38From the typology of the tombstone, it belongs to the Ottoman, descendants of the Turkish Empire.
18:44Every headstone is unique to its particular region from where it came from.
18:48So for Turkish headstones, they have the head and the legstone, and they are of floral motifs.
18:53When I first started to explore graves, I got lots of objections from families and friends.
19:02So why graves are dead? They don't speak to you.
19:06But I told them they are totally wrong.
19:08The tombstones actually can speak to you via the inscriptions and also the shapes.
19:12This is a Chinese grave.
19:20And what is found here after I've chalked it, it shows the Chinese characters.
19:25But I've yet to confirm which clan he belongs to.
19:28And when I chalk on the other side here, it's actually written in English.
19:33You can see the relief here. It's written in alphabets.
19:36There is a word affectionate here and remembrance.
19:38Then probably the name of who's buried here, Emma, E-M-M-A.
19:45And there is a figure here that shows 87.
19:48This person died in the year 1887.
19:55Exploring the graves has changed the way Serafian looks at Singapore's history.
20:01What surprised me when I was in Jalan Kubo,
20:03it actually encompasses other ethnic communities like the Ottoman.
20:09You have Chinese graves there.
20:11You have Javanese, Boogies.
20:16Kampung Glum was an established entry port
20:19where all the traders of different ethnic, they came here to trade.
20:23They got married here and they died here.
20:24They died here.
20:27But the sad thing is, they are forgotten today.
20:41Back at the Padang, one metre below ground,
20:44Chan Sien and Lucia uncover a mysterious structure.
20:48Could this be the major colonial artefact they've been looking for?
20:51Yeah, it looks like an old drainage system, older than what we found on top.
21:00I search here.
21:02Let's have a look.
21:04Here?
21:06Yes, yes.
21:08This is an old sanitation pipe.
21:10Oh.
21:12British.
21:14So this is quite a nice piece.
21:16Yeah, glazed British.
21:18Chan Sien makes out another important clue.
21:21The letters D-O-U suggest the pipe was made by Dalton & Company,
21:26a prestigious British manufacturer of its time.
21:29So I don't know whether you know about the history of this place, Lucia.
21:33Yeah.
21:34In the past, behind me were the museum.
21:36There used to be a hotel.
21:38Oh.
21:39So maybe this might be part of the system.
21:41Oh.
21:42Yeah, for sanitation.
21:44That Hotel de la Europe,
21:46you'd think the Raffles Hotel is the luxury hotel,
21:49but this was the arrival, the place to be.
21:51So potentially this is part of the drainage or the sanitation system running to one of these hotels.
22:04To discover things for yourself for the first time,
22:07whether is it a Song Dynasty coin or a ceramic jar from the Ming Dynasty
22:12or a 19th century sanitation pipe,
22:14you're making a connection with somebody in the past.
22:16You're just importing this expensive item all the way from the UK just to put this here.
22:22Why don't you just get something local?
22:25The mindset, again, from the colonial government,
22:28they say, no, we want to bring the best that England has to offer for our people,
22:33the population, to benefit the public in the empire.
22:37Somebody thought of that. Someone did that.
22:39So I guess that's the excitement for me, to be an archaeologist.
22:42And it's true me, as the storyteller, to share with the rest of the people.
22:48I guess that's something that keeps me going.
23:01Archaeologists across Singapore are looking into the nation's colonial past.
23:05Michael Ung and Chan Wai Peng want to uncover the stories of those who helped build the city in the 19th and early 20th century.
23:15They are heading to Pulau Ubin.
23:18This small island, located off the northeastern coast of Singapore,
23:23is largely uncharted territory for archaeologists.
23:26The pace of life here is languid now, but the island was once a hotbed of industry.
23:34Ubin is seen by mainland Singaporeans as a nature retreat.
23:39Not many people know Ubin was a job site where people engage in quarrying activities.
23:46In fact, it was the quarries that gave the island its name.
23:56Its original Malay name, Pulau Batu Ubin, means island of granite stone.
24:03Granite mined from here, and other quarries across Singapore,
24:08were used in the construction of many of modern Singapore's landmarks.
24:11They'll be removing the rocks and then they'll be transporting them to Singapore to build roads, to build buildings.
24:19But now, little remains of the quarries, or the people who worked in them.
24:31Compass?
24:33Compass here.
24:34Okay, let's go.
24:36Let's rock and roll.
24:37Alright.
24:41Many of Ubin's former quarries are submerged under water.
24:46But Michael and Wai Peng are hoping to find one above ground.
24:54Soon, a sign of human life.
24:58So well.
24:59Yeah.
25:01The bottom is actually, looks more like stone, you know, granite.
25:05I think this is really meant to supply for a substantial number of people.
25:08Hmm.
25:09And for a rather long term, right?
25:10Yeah.
25:11Because it's a permanent fixture.
25:12Yeah, it's because they even make the effort to actually build something here like this.
25:15Right.
25:17Sometimes these unknown places actually creates a mystery.
25:20It's almost like detective work trying to, you know, reveal what's going on there.
25:24I think for us as archaeologists, we should try our best to provide their voice for that site.
25:30For the people who have bombed on that site.
25:32Well, this is interesting.
25:33Yeah.
25:34It doesn't look natural at all.
25:35Yeah.
25:36Based on how it's chipped off.
25:37It's very perpendicular.
25:38So it really shows that somebody is working on this particular piece.
25:39People who live here and people who work here, well, they can be considered ancestors of our country.
25:46The fact that they struggle so hard, they build up, break by break, our own country.
25:51I feel like these people, this living style, this kind of site, shouldn't be forgotten.
26:10So that means last time there used to be people who were still working on this granite hill itself.
26:17Yeah, at least we know now that there's some evidence.
26:21I mean, from there to here, some form of quarrying is done.
26:31This is a pot.
26:33In this otherwise deserted, overgrown corner of Pulau Ubin,
26:37Michael and Wai Peng have discovered remnants of human settlement and activity.
26:44These finds fill spaces in the records of modern Singapore.
26:53The Green Act from Ubin were used for the building of the infrastructures,
26:57not just for people of high status or the government, but they are also for the general public as well.
27:03So, in a sense, literally building up a foundation for Singapore.
27:08And you'd be quite proud that, hey, I'm using my material from my country
27:13to build the building blocks of our foundation of our country.
27:17We are not relying on building blocks from other places.
27:21Our own natural resources were used for that building of Singapore.
27:26It's very easy for all these things to just be forgotten,
27:33so people can just walk past and, oh, this is just a jungle.
27:37I think it would be really, really nice if people anywhere,
27:40as long as they walk around in Singapore,
27:42I hope that they will be able to see how it used to be in the past.
27:45Oh, Chan, look at this.
28:01Oh, very nice greenware.
28:03Let's see what it is.
28:05Yeah.
28:06Ah, it's a nice celadon bow.
28:11You're finding also a nice one.
28:13Yeah.
28:14This one is nice.
28:15It's good luck, right?
28:16So, these are the Chinese ones.
28:18Mm-hm.
28:19So, we've got to clean it up a bit.
28:20You can see which dynasty, which emperor.
28:24It looks so beautiful.
28:26Yeah.
28:27Yeah.
28:28Archaeologists Lim Chen Hsien and Lucia Bianchi
28:32have started unearthing artefacts from before the colonial era.
28:36We're seeing pre-modern ceramics starting to come up
28:39and pop up on the ground.
28:42Although not the colonial items they are looking for,
28:45these 14th-century relics are still valuable.
28:49There are further evidence that Singapore was a thriving ancient kingdom,
29:00long before the arrival of Sir Stamford Raffles.
29:06From just the density and the volume of material we're getting
29:09from the archaeological excavation,
29:11it attests to that vibrancy in the pre-modern period.
29:15But finding artefacts from this era also means
29:22they're nearing the limits of their dig.
29:24Oh, almost done.
29:26Yeah, it's getting white.
29:28So, it's still around.
29:30White?
29:31White is an original beach sand.
29:38Okay, let's get this guy up.
29:40This is the very, very, very beautiful sand,
29:47pre-colonial Singapore of ancient Tamasic.
29:50It's nice and black.
29:52The reason why it's black is because of people living here,
29:55so there's a lot of organic remains,
29:57food remains, plant remains,
29:58and when they decompose, it sort of stains the sand black.
30:02Then beneath that, you've got the very, very white sand,
30:05and that's thorough, that's devoid of artefacts.
30:07There's nothing there.
30:09This is the original Singapore, Singapura sand.
30:13Very, very pristine, very fine, very nice and powdery.
30:17The legends of Sanginau Tama, if you're familiar with it.
30:26When he saw the beach of Singapore, he was mesmerised.
30:30He saw an island in the distance of sand that's so white,
30:36it looks like a sheet of silk.
30:38And he decided to come over here.
30:40And then I guess the rest, in a sense, is history.
30:46Chen Xien and Luqir have gone as far as they can in this dig.
30:50But there is still a big chunk of history missing.
30:55So at least from this unit behind me,
30:57we have stuff definitely from the 14th century,
30:59definitely from the 19th century and 20th century.
31:02So there's sort of a missing 500 years, right?
31:0515th, 16th, 17th and 18th century.
31:07From this unit alone,
31:09we're not seeing any artefacts from that time period.
31:12This gap in artefacts between the 14th and 19th century
31:18was once known as the black hole of archaeology in Singapore.
31:25It seemed to suggest that after the 14th century golden era of Tamasek,
31:30Singapore fell into obsolescence,
31:32only to be revived by Sir Stamford Raffles centuries later.
31:36But veteran archaeologist Professor John Miksik
31:39has found the artefacts
31:41to prove that life on the island continued.
31:47When Raffles arrived,
31:49there was basically just about, say, 600, 800 people here.
31:52And people thought that Singapore
31:54had never been more than a fish in the village.
31:57It was only when we started digging
31:59that we found out that it was actually not correct.
32:02Here we've got artefacts from the 15th century.
32:06This is the base of a very heavy bowl,
32:09as you can see,
32:10with a very nice kind of lotus pattern on it.
32:13This is a much more refined little piece,
32:16a little teacup.
32:17Yeah, I like this one.
32:19I like the little one
32:20with a little chrysanthemum flower on it.
32:26After the 14th century,
32:28with the founding of the Meleka Sultanate
32:30and its successor, Johor Riau,
32:33Singapore was no longer a capital of trade in the region.
32:37But it remained an outpost of this network,
32:39and foreign traders continued to pass through the island.
32:45These intricate pieces were a ground-breaking find,
32:49painting a picture of life here after the 14th century.
32:55So it's complete revelation.
32:57These artefacts are really important
32:59because it shows that Singapore
33:01kept on being quite significant.
33:03It wasn't abandoned
33:04when Malacca became the new capital.
33:06It was still quite a thriving port.
33:08Lots of foreign traders were coming here.
33:10It was smaller than the 14th century to Masik,
33:13but they were still quite prosperous
33:15and they were importing lots of fancy ceramics too,
33:18so they were still pretty well off.
33:20Singapore was by no means empty of people
33:23during the 15th, 16th centuries.
33:25While artefacts from the 17th and 18th century remain elusive,
33:31several historical records suggest that Singapore
33:35continued to be inhabited.
33:37We haven't been able to find anything in Singapore yet
33:40for the period of the 17th, 18th century,
33:42but we do have a few sources such as this map,
33:45and it shows Capital Harbour,
33:47and it's got the date 1709,
33:49and it shows some houses.
33:51It suggests very strong that there were people
33:53living on land at that time.
33:56I'm sure the Orang Laut were still living here
33:58because Europeans frequently mentioned them
34:00when they were anchored around Singapore Harbour
34:03or passing through,
34:04but then we haven't found any archaeological traces of them.
34:11Who were these Orang Laut, or sea people?
34:14And what has happened to them since?
34:29You know for sure that sea people actually existed
34:32when raffles arrived.
34:34So when I went to the graves,
34:36I don't see any trace of their tombstones or their existence.
34:39So that's the reason why I came to the National Library.
34:42The colonial records are classified the Orang Laut
34:44as scavengers and savages.
34:46They don't fit into society.
34:48These colonial accounts have long been taken as fact.
34:53But other historical evidence actually tells them
34:56before the period of this Orang Laut,
34:58they were the marines of yesterday.
35:00The question mark is, where are they?
35:06The seafaring Orang Laut have roamed the Straits of Malacca for centuries.
35:11With their formidable knowledge of the seas,
35:18some Orang Laut served as naval protectors of the Malay rulers.
35:26Raiding enemy ships and directing trade in their favour.
35:36Their prowess and skills were greatly valued by the Malay lords.
35:41But at the end of the 17th century,
35:51their ruler, Sultan Mahmud Shah, was assassinated.
35:59Controversy over his successor
36:01fragmented the Orang Laut's loyalties.
36:07This was the start of the decline in their power
36:10in the Malay kingdom.
36:19The Orang Laut belongs to distinct subgroups spread over many territories.
36:25Today, many no longer practice the nomadic lifestyle.
36:31Seraphian's research leads him to an Orang Laut community in Johor, Malaysia.
36:35A village named Kampong Sungai Timon.
36:41The Kampong's residents are part of an Orang Laut community
36:44that was once based along Singapore's northern coast.
36:48Good morning.
36:49Good morning.
36:50Good morning.
36:51Good morning.
36:52Good morning.
36:53Joining Seraphian on his research mission is his son, Shaquille.
36:56They're meeting the village chief to find out more about his people's history.
37:06I was able to find out that the people of Seletar
37:08are the last people who were left here
37:10after they left in Singapore.
37:12I have a picture of them here
37:14that shows that Tok Batin
37:15that they know who they are.
37:16But this is from the people of Seletar from Singapore.
37:20This is Park Tuak.
37:22Park Tuak?
37:23It's 70 people in the mountains.
37:25Yes, they are.
37:26So, what about your family of Tok Batin?
37:28Tok Batin is where people of Seletar from generation to?
37:32I have a generation of nine years old.
37:35So, when they were in Seletar,
37:37they left a lot of time in a village?
37:39This is a village.
37:40This is a village.
37:41This is a village.
37:42They eat there.
37:43They eat there.
37:44They eat there.
37:45They eat there.
37:46They eat there.
37:47They eat there by experimentation.
37:48They eat there.
37:49They eat there in an area mündirly.
37:50If animals are in one place,
37:51they eat them in a distance.
37:52Now, they eat one place.
37:54快 опасundert.
37:55They eat its own interesting objet.
37:56They eat bales.
37:57They eat Euh, Mattie,
37:58Do theyох.
37:59Is there actually eating slaughterhouses from any st Sharp?
38:00Can I take a bite bite?
38:01Do you have a growing Audrey's
38:03ас an Olivia�ям?
38:12Do they lose growing up?
38:17Sarafian is then invited to observe a traditional practice, the Orang Laut method of spearfishing.
38:47We have to learn each other every week or every day.
38:54So, our friends will talk about it.
38:57We will see them later.
39:17We will see them later.
39:24Hey! Ikan puntal!
39:28Lama juga kat bawah tadi.
39:33Saya dapat lihat, yang masuk saya bukan saya pakar dalam tangkap ikan.
39:38Bukan ikan lembing kan.
39:40Selagi beli ikan, selagi itu pun masuk tak naik.
39:44Tak naik.
39:45Selagi beli ikan.
39:51What I have learnt from my visit in Songhai Tumon is that the Orang Laut, they assimilate with their local communities,
39:57yet they still practice their old culture.
40:00They have their own way of life.
40:02They still maintain their language, what they have practised hundreds of years ago.
40:08The Orang Laut were some of the original inhabitants in Singapore
40:17when Raffles arrived.
40:19Their complex history goes to show
40:22that there was much more to what Raffles saw.
40:33These are the people that actually existed in Singapore.
40:38They have actually played a vital role
40:41in sculpturing the political landscape of our local waters.
40:47I wondered to myself,
40:49will they still exist 200 years from now?
40:53I just hope that this culture will be preserved as time goes by.
41:08To wrap up the Padang dig,
41:13Chen Xian is sorting and packing his finds.
41:16It's always exciting to find things.
41:18I think we've got a variety of different types of artefacts,
41:21metals, coins, shell, coral, the glass.
41:26We also have massive ceramic shards like from the sanitation pipes.
41:31So it's quite amazing that we have quite a lot of stuff.
41:49Chen Xian will also be leaving records of the team's excavation work.
41:53In the future, if archaeologists dig into this area,
41:57they'll be able to see this marker
41:59that some past archaeologists have came and dug this area before.
42:03So we put on an excavation unit number,
42:06that this is an archaeological excavation,
42:08how deep we went and what date it is.
42:10So that single excavation that we've done in the Padang is a two-by-one metre.
42:23You do see many, many different layers
42:25and many artefacts coming out of there.
42:27Imagine if we'd excavate the entire Padang.
42:30We're just barely scratching the surface, right?
42:33So if we were given hypothetically to dig up the whole place,
42:37yeah, perhaps we can try to piece together
42:41how the different layers of the past came together.
42:44From iconic sites to forgotten spaces,
43:01the work of archaeologists and researchers continues
43:05to add new chapters and perspectives on Singapore's colonial past.
43:10It's not about the artefacts themselves.
43:12It's what these artefacts can provide for people of the future.
43:17And I think that defines us as a society.
43:20I always feel that archaeologists are never people of the past.
43:25We are actually people of the future
43:26because we are doing all this not for ourselves,
43:28but we are also providing it for future generations.
43:33Raffles was a historical figure.
43:35It was known that he was a catalyst
43:36for the revival of Singapore at that time.
43:40So there's no reason to say that they were wrong,
43:43but now there's a potential to recast that narrative,
43:46to take into account the new knowledge
43:48and to re-evaluate Singapore's formation.
43:51To be continued...
43:52To be continued...
43:53To be continued...
43:54To be continued...
43:56To be continued...
43:57To be continued...
43:58To be continued...
44:28To be continued...
Comments