Ancient Archives Research Articles

Un état-civil chargé d'enjeux : Saint-George, 1745-1799

Luc Nemeth, A certificate of birth, full of stake : Saint-George, 1745-1799 . The ancient archives of the Baillif, civil parish in Guadeloupe, being incomplete and the illegitimate birth of Saint-George, who was a slave's natural child, account for the vagueness Saint-George's certificate of birth. Indeed he was given three different dates of birth, all being fully-justified. However, concerning his affiliation, living in a society incapable of imagining that a mulatto could be gifted, he was made to be son of an aristocrat. Actually his real father was known in 1972. But there are still attempts to spread confusion.

郘鐘器主再探

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 郘鐘是春秋時代晉國有銘青銅器，於晚清年間在山西省出土。王國維根據銘文內容所見之姓氏，論定郘鐘器主為晉國魏錡之後人。然而，近人有不同的意見，或以郘鐘器主為魏錡之子魏绛，或以為魏錡之子魏相。本文試從史籍中所見魏氏世系，剖析後出之説並不能成立，因此，郘鐘器主的身份仍以王國維的説法為恰當。“Lu Zhong”（郘鐘）, an inscribed bronze of Jin State in the Spring & Autumn Periods, was excavated during the late Ching Dynasty in Shanxi Province. According to the clan’s name shown in the inscription of this bronze, Wang guo wei （王國維）identified that the master of this bronze was an offspring of Wei qi （魏錡）.However, | there are recently different opinions arguing who was the master of “Lu Zhong” （郘鐘）.Some believe Wei jiang （魏絳）,son of Wei qi（魏錡） ,was the master of this bronze while others believe Wei xiang （魏相）, another son of Wei qi （魏錡）, was the master. This paper attempts to analyze the above arguments on the basis of the genealogy of the Wei clan discussed in ancient archives. The result of the analysis rejects the later proposition and suggests that the argument of Wang guo wei （王國維）is more appropriate.

Adapting an Ancient Archives Building in Turin

Describes the restoration and adaptation of the eighteenth century Royal Archives palace in Turin for use as the State Archives. Three imperatives had to satisfied: archival efficiency, the safeguarding of the architectural heritage and the security of documents and personnel. Summarizes the restoration and modernization work carried out to achieve these objectives.

Ancient archives: the edict of Alexander to Priene, a reappraisal

‘The historical value of an object depends not so much on the nature of the object as on its associations, which only scientific excavation can detect.’ The full significance of an inscription may equally rely on knowledge of its archaeological context. In practice, however, users of inscriptions often neglect this aspect. The standard commentaries, new and old, on Alexander's famous ‘edict to Priene’ (hereafter ‘AE’) tend to ignore the physical context of the inscription (I.Priene I) and to treat the text as an isolated or one-off document. Consequently no-one reading Dittenberger, Tod or now Heisserer would learn that it is one of a series of public inscriptions with a consistent theme belonging to an ‘archive’ of connected texts. The inscription is not discussed as one of a group of documents, its monumental setting is largely ignored and the rich corpus of Prienian inscriptions is not exploited fully as a control and source for the historical background of the AE. It is the purpose of this article to try to show that the AE cannot be properly studied in this archaeological limbo. ‘The associations’ of the AE are vital. They provide a new perspective from which to study the text.

Ebla's Royal Archives

Archivists, librarians and records and information specialists generally ignore ancient archives as a subject of study, believing it lacks utilitarian value. There are, however, advantages to be gained from such a story, including a greater appreciation of their respective professions. The 1974 discovery of the clay tablet archives of Ebla, the largest third millennium B.C. collection thus far uncovered, presents an opportunity to learn something about early archival library records and information practices and a means of gaining greater appreciation of the roots of various professional disciplines and of their common heritage. This paper discusses Ebla, its archives, their creators and custodians, with the aim of providing the reader with an understanding of why and how the clay tablets were created and maintained, as well as an understanding of archival, library and records administration in the third millennium B.c. primarily as it existed in Ebla.

The first map of modern Egypt Mohammed Ali's firman and the map of 1841

At the end of 1831, an Egyptian army, under Mohammed Ali's son, Ibrahim Pasha, invaded Syria. After some battles this army reached a point 100 Km of Istanbul and in 1833, as a result of the Convention of Kutahiga, Syria and Adana became parts of Egypt under Mohammed Ali's rule. For eight years the Egyptian frontier as it had been up to the Ottoman conquest of 1517 stood on the crests of the Taurus mountains and the Euphrates. In 1840, the European Powers (excluding France) intervened to protect the sultan who had rashly attacked the Egyptians, and Mohammed Ali was forced to leave Syria. By virtue of the firmans, issued on Feb. 13 and June 1 1841, Mohammed Ali surrendered Crete (the governship of which he was granted in 1821), Syria and Adana, which reverted to the direct control of the Porte, while in compensation the sultan granted him the hereditary rule of Egypt. The sultan's firmans were accompanied by a map showing the boundaries of the area under Mohammed Ali's rule and was the first map to indicate the formation of Modern Egypt as a sovereign state. The map was sent to Egypt but was lost there. The Egyptian authorities and the British administrators who ruled Egypt from 1882 'knew' the boundaries, used new maps but never saw the original one. An official map of Egypt according to the sultan's firman was published in 1926.1 In the years following the Italian occupation of Libya there were some disputes over the boundaries between the Italian area and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, concerning the 'Owenat' and 'Sarra triangle' in the south-west corner of Egypt.2 The officials of the British Foreign Office tried to trace the old Map of Egypt in order to use it against the Italian claim, but the Map was not in Egypt. The British ambassador in Turkey, Sir Percy Loraine, was asked to look for the Map, or an original copy, in the Ottoman archives, In March 1934 he sent a telegram telling the F.O.: Map has been found.3 The Turkish Prime Minister's Department, which had the custody of ancient archives, were apparently reluctant to let the Map go out of official Turkish keeping but agreed to produce a photograph of it. Two British experts carefully examined the Map and compared it with the photograph which they found to be a perfectly genuine reproduction. These experts, Mr Knight and Mr Bowker, had no hesitation in concluding that the reproduction was the authentic Map. Although well preserved, it showed clear signs of age, and 'might well have been 90 or 100 years old' (in 1933 G.B.). The Map was mounted on silk and framed in a narrow binding of the same material.4 The Turkish inscription in manuscript, reproduced in the photograh, at the bottom of the Map5 reads as follows: 'Drawn in the office of the Imperial Land Surveyors, being a copy of the sealed map graciously sent in the year 1256 (1841 G.B.) when the province of Egypt was granted to the late Mohammed Ali Pasha with the privilege of inheritance'.