The first systematic archaeological excavation in Singapore was carried out on Fort Canning Hill in 1984. Between 1984 and 1995, eight excavations took place on the hill. Remains from Fort Canning include many rare or unique items including a Chinese porcelain compass, high-quality white porcelain decorated with cobalt blue painting, shards of complex glass vessels from China, and over 10,000 glass beads. Many small fragments of these beads were found, suggesting that they were sewn onto textiles. An atelier where gold was worked and broken glass was reworked to make bangles was also revealed. The craftsmen who worked here probably were employed to produce special items for the royal family whom it is inferred lived in a palace on this hill.
In 1989 a brief excavation was carried out on Duxton Hill. The goal of this excavation was to recover information about the items used by people who lived there from the mid-19th to mid-20th century CE. Representing the early period are fragments of a wooden dwelling of a European who owned a nutmeg plantation in the area. In the late 19th century CE expensive multi-storey dwellings were built here as the city grew and the nearby port at Keppel Harbour was developed. Sherds of expensive porcelain were recovered from the soil layer of this period in a lane behind some of these buildings. This layer lay sandwiched between two tile floors. On top of the second floor were more artefacts deposited in the early to mid-20th CE century, when the wealthy residents moved elsewhere and the buildings on Duxton Hill were converted into dormitories for Chinese rickshaw pullers and horse cart drivers from the Bawean Archipelago in the Java Sea. Artefacts representative of this period include small stoneware cups used to contain opium and round stone marbles used by children.
The third site to be studied was located on the plain north of the Singapore River. The site designated as Parliament House Complex (PHC) was excavated between November 1995 and January 1996. PHC was located approximately 100 meters from the Singapore River. Before the excavation, the area consisted of shophouses built in the early 20th century CE. The area was designated for the new parliament of Singapore, replacing the Old Parliament House. The first goal of the excavation was to determine whether any precolonial artifacts might be found beneath the floors of the shophouses. There was no formal process for requesting permission to undertake archaeological research in Singapore at this time. The first FTC excavation had been conceived as a single experiment to test the hypothesis that the depiction of Fort Canning as the Forbidden Hill where Singapore’s first king, Sri Tri Buana, had been buried according to the Malay Annals. In 1987 a second excavation was carried out as part of an ASEAN archaeological programme in which ASEAN countries took turns to conduct archaeological projects. In that year John Miksic was employed by the National University of Singapore as a lecturer in the History Department. He supervised the ASEAN excavation, which was conducted in the same area as his 1984 excavation. Upon his employment by NUS, he continued to hold regular excavations on Fort Canning as part of his teaching at NUS.
In 1995, the first sign that something was happening at the future PHC site was the erection of a hoarding typical of future construction. Dr. Miksic instituted inquiries, and wrote a letter to the Secretary of Parliament requesting permission to conduct archaeological research at the site. Permission was granted, along with assistance from a contractor. At this time Dr. Miksic was also a consultant with the department of Parks and Recreation (now the National Parks Board) and sat on a committee to plan future development of Fort Canning consistent with the park’s newly-recognized historical resources. In this capacity he was given funds to hire three research assistants. The first excavation in 1984 had made use of volunteers from the staff of the Singapore History Museum, including the daughter of Benjamin Sheares, former president of Singapore. In 1987, Dr. Miksic began to involve volunteers from the general public, a policy which continues to this day whenever possible.
It was decided to focus on the northeast corner of the PHC site near the junction of North Bridge Road and High Street, partly because preparatory construction was already in progress in the southern area. A quick test with a backhoe showed that 19th-century shophouses which formerly stood there had been built on shallow foundations which did not seriously disturb the lower soil layer, which consisted of sand mixed with charcoal and artifacts dating from the 14th through 16th centuries. The time allocated for the PHC extended from November 1995 to January 1996.
The PHC site yielded a repertoire of items connected with the bulk of the population of ancient Singapore, in contrast with the royal nature of the people and activities on Fort Canning Hill. The predominant activity conducted at PHC seems to have been the working of copper and bronze, including the production of fish hooks. Chinese coins were also found there in considerable numbers, indicating intensive commercial activity. Chinese ceramics were also found at PHC, in large quantities and a range of qualities, dating from a period of about 300 years. This pattern is suggestive of a situation in which work was carried out in small individual workshops combined with living quarters.
Empress Place was the fourth site excavated in Singapore. This was the first and so far the only ancient site located directly on the Singapore River’s bank. The opportunity to investigate this site arose when it was decided to convert the Empress Place Building from an exhibition hall designed to accommodate a series of five displays of artifacts from China, each lasting one year, into a permanent Asian Civilisations Museum under the National Heritage Board. A hawker centre with food stalls had previously occupied the site, which was sandwiched between the river and the Empress Place Building (EPB). It is now (2022) a promenade along the Singapore River paved with large stone slabs.