Singapore Stone

Singapore Stone
A black and white photo of the Singapore Stone (above), and an artist's rendering of the inscriptions on the fragment of the Stone from an 1848 article by J.W. Laidlay published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal (below)
Material	Sandstone
Size	67 cm (26 in), 80 kg (180 lb)
Writing	Unknown script; probably Old Javanese or Sanskrit
Created	At least 13th century, and possibly 10th or 11th century
Discovered	1819 Mouth of the Singapore River
Present location	Displayed in the Singapore History Gallery at the National Museum of Singapore

The Singapore Stone is a fragment of a large sandstone slab which originally stood at the mouth of the Singapore River. The large slab, which is believed to date back to at least the 13th century and possibly as early as the 10th or 11th century, bore an undeciphered inscription.^[1] Recent theories suggest that the inscription is either in Old Javanese or in Sanskrit, which suggested a possibility that the island was an extension of the Majapahit civilization in the past.^[2][3]

It is likely that the person who commissioned the inscription was Sumatran. The slab may be linked to the legendary story of the 14th-century strongman Badang, who is said to have thrown a massive stone to the mouth of the Singapore River. On Badang's death, the Rajah sent two stone pillars to be raised over his grave "at the point of the straits of Singapura".

The slab was blown up in 1843 during British colonial rule to clear and widen the passageway at the river mouth to make space for a fort and the quarters of its commander D.H. Stevenson. The Stone, now displayed at the National Museum of Singapore, was designated by the museum as one of 11 National Treasures of Singapore in January 2006, and by the National Heritage Board as one of the top 12 artefacts held in the collections of its museums.