Medieval shipwreck finally refutes colonial British myth of Singapore as a 'small village' - study

Scientists have obtained the first maritime evidence that Singapore was a major trading center five hundred years before the arrival of the British. A study of the 14th-century shipwreck, published in the Journal of International Ceramic Studies, found that the ship was carrying a cargo of rare Chinese porcelain to the city - the largest collection of Yuan Dynasty era items ever discovered at a shipwreck.

The ship, called the Temasek Wreck (Temasek is the ancient name of Singapore), sank in the 14th century at the eastern entrance to the Singapore Strait. This is the first ship to be found in Singapore waters to be the victim of an ancient shipwreck. Archaeologists from ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute carried out excavations from 2016 to 2019 and recovered about 3.5 tons of ceramic fragments from the bottom, as well as several intact objects. There was nothing left of the ship's hull itself - the wood was destroyed by waves, currents and wood-boring worms.

The main find is about 136 kg of blue-and-white porcelain from the Yuan era: more than 2,350 fragments and several whole objects in fourteen different shapes. Such quantities have not been found at any other documented shipwreck in the world. In addition, the cargo included celadon (porcelain) from Longquan, shufu pottery from Jingdezhen, and stone jars from Qiao. Study author Michael Flecker of HeritageSG concluded that the ship was likely a Chinese junk that took on cargo at the port of Quanzhou.

The estimated date of the crash was established thanks to a decorative motif on the blue and white bowls - mandarin ducks in a lotus pond. This motif was the signature of Emperor Wenzong and was in his exclusive use from 1328 to 1332. After the Shundi Emperor came to power in 1340, the ban was no longer in force and private kilns flooded the market with products with this pattern, mainly for export. In 1352, the Red Turban army captured Jingdezhen and stopped production. Thus, Flecker dates the sinking of the ship to 1340–1352.

Flecker determined the ship's destination by a method of elimination. The famous historical collections of Turkey, the Middle East and India are dominated by blue and white dishes with a diameter of 40–50 cm. There are almost no dishes on the Temasek Wreck, and the largest do not exceed 35 cm - exactly like the fragments found during excavations at Fort Canning and other land sites in Singapore. This directly indicates that the ship was not heading to the ports of the Indian Ocean, but specifically to Temasek: a significant part of the cargo was intended for wealthy residents of the city, and some for further transshipment.

The study notes that its findings contradict the colonial narrative: the British, who arrived in Singapore in 1819, portrayed it as a remote fishing village, which in retrospect justified their “civilizing” mission. The 14th-century discovery of a cargo of high-end porcelain is the first maritime evidence that Temasek, in its heyday, was a dominant port city in Southeast Asia, with direct trade from China.

Earlier, archaeologists discovered a bone in Cordoba, Spain, which may be the first direct material evidence of the use of war elephants during the Punic Wars.