It is not every day you meet a man who has decided to make digging for buried treasures his life’s work.  Archaeologist Lim Chen Sian is not your average Singaporean male. Sure, he sports a fashionable haircut, drives a shiny Audi, wears crisp linen shirts, and flashes an IWC watch.

But his ‘office’ can range from a two by four-metre space to an area approximately the size of a football field. His main work tool is not a computer, but a trowel, shovel or mattock – depending on whether he’s excavating on soft sand or hard, stony soil. And he can’t claim that he works in air- conditioned comfort.

But he has so much passion for his work that all the above seem terribly trivial. Why rough it out digging in the ground under a burning sun, when he can have a cushy desk job at a bank?

Explains Lim: “I have always had a passion for the past. As a kid, I liked military stuff – how armies formed, why they were fighting battles and so on. It was not just about an application of soldiers or troops on the move, but the causes and political reasons behind it – which usually predate the battle itself by decades.

“There are only certain aspects of things that history can tell you through recorded documents. But if something’s not recorded, how else can I find out about the past? Archaeology is the discipline that enables this.”

Consuming passion

The 30-something has been doing excavation work for about eight years now, since his 2002 return from the United States where he received his double degree in Business Administration, Banking and Finance, and Archaeology from Boston University. Prior to that, he was briefly based in New York, focusing on work relating to ancient Egyptian history and the Mayan civilisation. It was a desire to reconnect with his Singapore-based American professor John Miksic that led Lim home. He was part of a team of volunteers, overseen by Miksic, which carried out excavation work at Old Parliament House. The project, which led to the discovery of items from the 14th century, hit home in more ways than one for Lim.

“It connected me back to when I was eight years old, on a trip there with my primary school classmates to see and hear MPs debating about a swimming complex in Hougang. Then it hit me hard – why am I excavating halfway across the world in Central America and Africa when there’s so much stuff to do here, and no one to do it? All the more, it was time to come home.”

Lim is a familiar face in the local heritage scene, involved in archaeological and heritage related work in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Egypt.

Now a research associate with the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies’ Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, he is part of a team carrying out archaeological investigations – among other projects — on coastal and riverine settlements in Sumatra during the Buddhist period (which lasted from ancient times till the 16th century) .Work goes on seven days a week; he attends site meetings, does research work in libraries and archives, and carries out lab work washing, sorting, cataloging and photographing artifacts. All this happens outside of excavation work on the field doing preventive or salvage archaeology to preserve the past before construction and demolition crews come in.

Some of his excavations in Singapore have been at the sites of the upcoming National Art Gallery (City Hall and the old Supreme Court Building), the Sentosa Integrated Resort Singapore, and at Fort Serapong on Sentosa.

Treasures he has found from these digs include coins dating back to 1965 and pieces of crockery from the time of Admiral Cheng Ho (circa the late 1300s) to pottery fragments estimated to be up to 1,000 years old.

Soul searching

Some may question Lim’s decision to return to a young, tiny city that is continually on the cusp of reinvention and redevelopment – so much so that it is constantly being accused of trading her soul for modernisation.

Lim disagrees.

He feels that every society has a soul that serves as a connection to identity and belonging, and that Singapore is no exception. “One reason why I am staying on here is I truly believe that.  At any one point in time, we are on the edge of modernity. In the 60s, my parents were on the edge of modernity driving a Beetle. Eight hundred years ago, when Singapura was founded, all these artifacts we have found were on the edge of ‘modernity’ then.

“Fast forward years later, and I am searching for our past soul,” he says.

The archaelogist in him wants us to “try and understand a bit of where we come from” and to see our environment “with new eyes”.  To him, any part of Singapore is literally an archaeological site connecting us to a rich history.

“If I were to dig this spot I’m standing on right here in the Fort Canning Centre car park, I dare say I’ll find something,” he says. “Any piece of land or step or area you stand on could house an amazing artifact.”

But a country’s soul need not necessarily be defined by or associated with an item. Even ‘ah bengs’ contribute to Singapore’s soul, he says, by way of an example.

These would be stereotyped young Chinese men perceived to lack cultural refinement, and predisposed to extensively-modified cars.

“With their bleached hair, spending hundreds and thousands of dollars souping up their Hondas with spoilers – that’s a form of soul. You don’t see this unique phenomenon in Germany or Australia. That says something about a country — whether it’s cars, or people spending time trying to dish up the perfect plate of rojak or fried noodles.

“You can’t replicate it elsewhere. The trick is to know what you like, and what you want to see, and take the time to wonder where we come from.”

Grinning, he adds, “My reality is digging out the past, trying to find out who I am, where I came from, where I’m going, why I belong here. These are inherent questions an archaeologist would ponder.

“And that’s why I dig – I am seeking these answers.”

* This article was written by Tina Wang and first published in Singapore Magazine (Oct-Dec 2010 issue).