--The Straits Times, 30 Jan 2012--


Myanmar participant Su Latt Win examining artefacts during a lab session at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies on Friday. Field-school programme participants picking up ancient pottery fragments in Kou Pnouv, near Angkor Wat, earlier this month. -- ST PHOTO: SAMUEL HE PHOTO: COURTESY OF FOO SHU TIENG

By Lin Zhaowei

While history undergraduate Christine Chan's peers at the National University of Singapore were busy working on their honours-year theses, she was taking four weeks off to visit Cambodian archaeological sites and attend workshops in the field.

She was among 10 young people from top Asia-Pacific universities picked to attend the first field-school programme organised by the newly set-up Archaeology Unit of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies' Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre.

Participants spent two weeks in Cambodia's existing and potential excavation sites this month, and are finishing up a two-week stint here, attending workshops and studying artefacts.

Dr John Miksic, who heads the Archaeology Unit, said the programme aims to provide a platform for emerging historians and archaeologists to network and gain exposure. 'Young people are now more keen on international collaboration in general,' he said, and noted also the spike in interest in the Chinese connection in South-east Asia's history, thus far not very well recorded.

'This requires archaeologists to work with their counterparts in the region,' he said.

To this end, the unit aims to develop long-term links with regional institutions and act as a coordinating body for the sharing of information.

With activities at the unit picking up pace, new members have been added to its ranks.

At its inception last August, it had just three part-time members - Dr Miksic, Assistant Professor Goh Geok Yian of Nanyang Technological University, and visiting research fellow Lim Chen Sian. Since then, a full-time research associate and two part-timers who handle communications and volunteers have joined the team.

Dr Miksic said the setting-up of a website to share working papers and publications is under way; this project will take time because the unit needs to tie up with those in the field in other countries, he said.

The unit is now touching base with Myanmar's culture ministry. Dr Miksic, noting that the country is opening up quickly, said his unit is interested in running training programmes there, perhaps by the year end.

Next year, he hopes to work on a field site in Trowulan village on Indonesia's island of Java. It is known to have been part of the Majapahit empire, which counted Singapore as one of its tributaries in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Dr Miksic believes that archaeology programmes, such as the ongoing field school, should benefit local communities where archaeological studies are being undertaken. For example, in the Cambodian village of Kou Pnouv near the famed Angkor Wat, where the archaeological unit conducted a surface survey, the villagers do not even have water wells.

'With funding, we hope to contribute something back to the villagers... so they can see archaeology as something they can promote and defend, instead of seeing artefacts as items they can sell for short-term gain,' he said.

Ms Chan, 22, does not intend to pursue archaeology after graduating - she wants a master's in history - but said she gained exposure from the four-week programme and from interacting with the other participants.

She said: 'Most of them are doing archaeology at the post-graduate level, and they really like what they do. There's a lot of energy.'

zhaowei@sph.com.sg

Related Links
TEXT AND PHOTOS: AMELIA TENG GRAPHICS: TIEN CHUNG PING SOURCE: ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM