Archives, what's in a name?
The origin of the word Archives can be traced back to the Greek word archeion, which derives from archaios, meaning ancient, and architekton, meaning chief builder; and gives us words like architecture and archbishop. Archeion, translates to “the office or authority of a magistrate”.
With the later rise of the Roman Empire, it transformed into the Latin word archivium. When the Romans conquered Gaul, Latin became the predominant language we now know as French, and the word became l'archive. After the Normans' conquest of England in 1066, the English anglicized the word to Archive.
Archives in one form or another have existed from antiquity to the present day.
The use of archives for research is a relatively recent development: it began with the French archives' law of 1794. A broad organization of public and private archives has developed since that period and now encompasses all countries worldwide.
It has been contended that the Sumerians created the first archives in the middle of the fourth millennium B.C. These records took the form of clay tablets with cuneiform or wedged-shaped characters. Other ancient societies followed such as the Hittites, Assyrians, and Mesopotamians, all keeping archives. In some of these societies, archives were kept in temples and courts for religious, legal, administrative, and genealogical purposes.
During the second and third millennium B.C., the Egyptians developed an extensive system of archives to support their subjugated lands, as did the later Persian Empire.
On the other side of the world, the Chinese's started archives that can be traced back almost as far as the Sumerians. These records were inscribed on bones and tortoise shells for religious, administrative, and symbolic purposes. By 700 B.C., bamboo, silk, and stone tablets were used. While the Egyptians used papyrus, the Chinese began using plant-fiber paper after 200 B.C. The Chinese also demonstrated an early interest in the use of archives to control the writing of history. In the first century A.D., the Han Dynasty established a Bureau of Historiography.
The Greek city-state of Athens began housing its archives in the Metroon, the temple of the mother of the gods. Rome's first public archives were founded in the Aerarium, or treasury, of the temple of Saturn and housed laws, decrees, reports, and financial records. Like the Metroon, the laws housed in these archives could be consulted by all citizens. When the Aerarium was destroyed by fire in 83 B.C., it was replaced by the Tabularium, a large stone building. In later imperial Rome, the Tabularium adopted a narrower mission as the archives of the Senate. Various emperors, most notably Justinian I, were keen advocates of archives. The Justinian Code of 529 A.D. was not only written with the assistance of archives, but it also included a section on the role of archives and archivists.
This code emphasized the importance of archives as a public place of deposit and as guarantors of the integrity and authenticity of the records housed therein.
Formalized record keeping systems and organizational archives were the foundation features of innovative Islamic military and economic empires during medieval times. State Chanceries or central 'register' offices called diwans were established in places such as Persia, Damascus, Baghdad, and North Africa during the seventh and eighth centuries.
Most medieval European archives were maintained in church settings, often in muniment rooms. By the middle of the sixth century, papal archives had been established. Following the Roman Empire's collapse, several municipal archives persisted in Italy and France until the ninth and tenth centuries. Venice and Florence established archives during the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, respectively. It was common practice for European royal archives to have no fixed location but to travel with the King's household. Towards the end of the twelfth century, however, there were some moves toward establishing central government archives in England. A century later, Treasury rolls began to be housed in the Tower of London. In 1323 the first inventory of English archives was completed and served as a model for similar initiatives elsewhere in western Europe. In 1346 the archives of the kingdom of Aragon were created; around this time, paper began to become more common in Europe.
In 1524 the archives of the crown of Castille were established by Charles V. This Archive was greatly expanded by Philip II. He regarded archives as vital for controlling, administering, and legitimizing an empire and viewed archives as symbols of power and prestige. This Archive is now considered the classic prototype of a centralized national archives. Two hundred years later, the Archives of the Indies was established in Seville for the same reasons. When Cortes conquered the Americas, it was considered essential to burn the archives of the conquered Incas and Aztecs and ensure legitimate documentation of the occupation by a legally appointed Notary. Their records were eventually deposited back in Spain. The combined effect of the advent of the printing press and the emergence of the modern administrative state generated significant growth in records creation and, consequently, archives holdings.
Through this long process, we now have the model of the current Archive with collections for both secular and religious institutions.
Today the Bhaktivedanta Archives straddles both as the religious and philosophical repository of His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami to keep his legacy alive without alteration in true archival tradition - "As It Is." And who knows maybe this archive will be included in the history of Archives in the future because of its significance to all humanity.
Photo
Color negatives cause the most problems for an archivist. The color dyes degrade more rapidly in color negatives than other film mediums if not kept in ideal conditions. Early image scanners could not recover the lost color data. This led to painstaking Photoshop processes for publishers to get the digital image close to the original.
Fortunately, scanners have improved dramatically over the ensuing years. As a result, we are now re- scanning the Srila Prabhupada color negative collection.
Did You Know?
The Bhaktivedanta Archives does not edit original Letters, Audio, Transcriptions, Manuscripts, or Photos. As an archive, the content of the materials in our care must be conserved as we receive them. This is reflected in our flagship digital standalone program, the VedaBase™ (as of writing, this is the 2019 version).
You can confidently use the standalone VedaBase™ for accurate facsimiles of our Documents, Audio transcriptions, Manuscripts, and Letters.
PR
Letter to: Atreya Rsi
Tokyo
25 April, 1972
72-04-25
Brooklyn
My dear Atreya Rsi,
Please accept my blessings. I beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter
dated April 17, 1972.1 am returning back to Los Angeles by the 20th May.
At that time it wilII be a great pleasure to have your association there.
Hoping this will meet you in good health.
Your ever well-wisher,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
ACBS/sda
»> Ref. VedaBase => Letter to: Atreya Rsi — Tokyo 25 April, 1972
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