Major changes were taking place in the Straits of Melaka at the start of the fourteenth century. The modern notion of a"city" was beginning to take shape. Islam was beginning to spread through the region. Chinese coins were used as an efficient medium of exchange in several Southeast Asian kingdoms. The Chinese were beginning to reside for long periods, even for life, in p of Southeast Asia. The archaeology of fourteenth-century Singapore gives us an insight into the very early phases of these processes.