page_title: Early history of Singapore
section_title: Early period
hierarchical_section_title: Early history of Singapore / Early period
context_page_description: The early history of Singapore refers to its pre-colonial era before 1819, when the British East India Company was led by Sir Stamford Raffles established a trading settlement on the island and set in motion the history of Singapore.
  Prior to 1819, the island was known by several names; an early reference may be in the 2nd century work by Ptolemy which identified a coastal port at the southernmost tip of the Malayan peninsula, called Sabana. However, historians generally attribute a 3rd-century Chinese traveller's record describing an island at the same location called Pu Luo Chung, a transcription of Singapura's early Malay name Pulau Ujong, as the first recording of its existence.
  Singapore was known in the 13th to 14th century as Temasek, a name also recorded in Chinese sources as Dan Ma Xi, a country recorded as having two distinct settlements – Long Ya Men and Ban Zu. It changed its name to Singapura perhaps towards the end of 14th century. The island was alternately claimed by the Siamese and the Javanese in the 14th century. The last ruler of Singapura Parameswara fled to Malacca after an attack by either the Javanese or Siamese, and established the state of Malacca.
context_section_description: The first possible mention of early Singapore dates to 2nd century CE cartographic references in the Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy's Geographia. A place called Sabana or Sabara was marked on the 11th Map of Asia at the southern tip of the Golden Khersonese (meaning the Malay Peninsula) where Singapore may lie. It was identified as a nominon emporion or designated foreign trading port, as part of a chain of similar trading centres that linked Southeast Asia with India and the Mediterranean.  Identification of Sabana or Sabara however varies, with various authors proposing it to be in Selangor or near Klang, or just south of Malacca, or south Johor, as well as Singapore island itself. No archaeological evidence from this period has yet been found in Singapore.
  A 3rd century Chinese written record described the island of Pu Luo Chung (蒲羅中), probably a transcription of the Malay Pulau Ujong, "island at the end" (of the Malay peninsula).  It mentions briefly a hearsay account of cannibals with 5 or 6 inch tails living there.
caption: Ptolemy, Geographia, VIII. 11th Map of Asia. Sabana given at the tip of the Malay Peninsula which was named as the Golden Khersonese.
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