Kota Cina in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries may have played the role of early enclave of Chinese settlement in the northern Straits of Malaka much as Sigapore did at tha Straits'southern end in the fourteenth century. Much of the pottery found on Fort Canning is well-made white-slipped pottery of Type A , whereas white-slipped earthenware is rare at other sites in the ancient city. Cooking pots are rare on the hill; the ceramics found there seem to have included many small stonge vessels. Utilitarian earthenware found at the sites in the Singapore plain between Fort Canning and the sea range from brown and orange to black. Apparently these are the natural colours of the fired clay and no attempt was made to modify them.