Ceramic shards (above) found at Empress Place show that trade in Singapore might have carried on from before the 1400s to the early 1500s, says archaeologist Tai Yew Seng, who has been studying the scant records of 1400s Singapore and will focus on excavation artefacts to get an idea of what the island was like then.

PHOTOS: CHONG JUN LIANG, COURTESY OF TAI YEW SENG