Archival science

Archival Science is the discipline that studies, manages, and develops the theory of all types of documents—also called documentation—that are naturally generated and accumulated as a result of the activities of public institutions, private enterprises, associations, or individuals, and are preserved for a specific purpose due to their administrative, legal, financial, or historical value, from their creation through classification, preservation, appraisal, and provision to researchers.

Contrary to the widespread and erroneous belief, archival science is not merely the activity of storing old papers. It is a strategic field intricately linked with "Records Management", which enhances institutional efficiency, and ensures the legal continuity of the state and its "corporate memory". According to the universal definition adopted at the Seventh International Archives Round Table Conference in Madrid in 1962, the concept of archives encompasses three fundamental elements: documentation accumulated as a result of institutional activities, the institutions responsible for managing this documentation, and the physical locations where it is stored.^【1】 The failure to properly manage archives in a country risks erasing the state’s memory and making it impossible to prove the legal rights of citizens and the state. The archivist is therefore defined as the guardian of the past and the founder of the future.

The term "archive" derives from the Greek word Archeion, meaning "official office" or "city hall", and the Latin Archivum. Initially referring to the physical space where documents were stored, the term gradually came to denote the entire collection of documents and the institutional structure responsible for their management.^【2】

The history of archival science parallels the invention of writing. As early as the 20th century BCE, state and temple archives existed in Mesopotamia, with official state archives documented in the city of Nippur, where tablets were stored.^【3】 Anatolia possesses one of the world’s most ancient archival heritages. Excavations in Hattuşaş (Boğazköy), the capital of the Hittites, have uncovered a large state archive dating from 1800 to 1200 BCE, containing royal decrees, treaties, and laws.^【4】 These tablets were systematically preserved to ensure the administrative continuity of the state.

The modern understanding of archival science underwent a radical transformation with the French Revolution of 1789. Prior to the revolution, archives were considered "secrets of the monarch" and kept hidden from the public. After the revolution, they acquired the status of "citizens' rights" and "public property". This shift led to the redefinition of archives as institutions that document not only the history of the state but also the nation, and that enable citizens to prove their legal rights.^【5】

The importance accorded to documents and records in the Turkish state tradition reached its peak during the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman bureaucracy recorded every state activity. The "Tapu Tahrir Defterleri" (Defter-i Hâkânî), containing land ownership and tax information of conquered territories, and the "Mühimme Defterleri", recording decisions of the Imperial Council, are among the empire’s most important memory records.^【6】 In the classical period, these documents were stored in repositories located in Yedikule, Topkapı Sarayı, or Atmeydanı.

The birth of modern Turkish archival science dates to 1846. On the orders of the renowned Grand Vizier of the Tanzimat period, Mustafa Reşid Paşa, the Hazine-i Evrak (Evrak Hazinesi) was established to store and classify state documents under modern conditions. This institution formed the foundation of today’s Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye State Archives. As a sign of his commitment to archival science, Mustafa Reşid Paşa commissioned the Italian architect Fossati to build a special archive building in the Babıali gardens, designed to be resistant to moisture and fire.^【7】 The Hazine-i Evrak Ministry adopted a modern classification system aimed not only at preserving documents but also at ensuring their retrievability upon request.

In the early years of the Republic, various efforts were made to classify and preserve the massive volume of documents inherited from the Ottoman Empire. A pivotal moment in the history of Turkish archival science was the event known in literature as the "Sale of Documents to Bulgaria". In 1931, approximately one million historical documents, deemed "useless paper" at the time and stored in Istanbul warehouses of the Ministry of Finance, were sold to Bulgaria for 3 kuruş and 10 para per kilogram to be turned into pulp. When it became clear that these documents were invaluable records illuminating Ottoman financial history, intellectuals of the era and historians such as Muallim Cevdet intervened, and through diplomatic efforts, a portion of the documents was recovered.

This incident served as a wake-up call in archival history. The event painfully demonstrated the urgent need to grant archives legal status and to clearly define criteria for retention versus destruction. Immediately following this development, in 1934, the "Regulation on the Destruction of Useless Official Documents and Registers" was issued, and for the first time, the destruction and preservation of archival material were placed on a legal foundation.^【8】 Today, archival services are conducted under Law No. 3473, "On the Destruction of Documents and Materials No Longer Required to Be Preserved".

Various attempts were made in Turkey to scientifically classify archives. Ali Emiri (1918–1921) experimented with chronological classification; İbnülemin Mahmud Kemal İnal (1921) based his system on state organization; and Muallim Cevdet (1932) attempted thematic classification. However, none of these systems fully reflected the "original order" of archives. In 1935, the Hungarian archivist Dr. Lajos Fekete was invited to Turkey. Dr. Fekete proposed and implemented the "Provenance System" (Principle of Original Order), which became the foundational principle of modern archival science in Turkey.^【9】 This system rejects artificially dividing documents by subject or chronology; instead, it requires documents to be preserved within the hierarchical structure of the office or unit that produced them.

Unlike librarianship, archival science has a rigorous methodology based on international standards (such as ISAD-G). Random shelving is not acceptable.

1. Principle of Provenance: This is the constitution of modern archival science. According to this principle, documents belonging to one institution or legal entity must never be mixed with those of another. For example, the "school construction" file of the Ministry of National Education cannot be combined with the "school construction" file of the Ministry of Environment, even if the subject is identical. Each institution’s records must be preserved within their own integrity (Fonds). This preserves the context in which the document was created. Although digital technologies make copying documents easy, the Principle of Provenance remains vital for ensuring document reliability and provenance chains.^【10】
2. Preservation of Original Order (Respect des Fonds): Archivists do not reorganize documents upon receipt according to their own preferences (alphabetical, chronological, etc.). They preserve the original filing system of the institution, because the filing system reflects the institution’s operational logic and hierarchy.^【11】
3. Appraisal and Disposal: This is the most critical process in archival science. Not every document can be preserved indefinitely. Documents that have lost their legal and administrative validity and lack historical value—such as invitations, drafts, and routine correspondence—are destroyed after their legally mandated retention periods expire. Only documents possessing "archival value" are preserved permanently.

In the 21st century, the "born-digital" creation of documents has fundamentally transformed archival science. While traditional paper documents preserve their boundaries and context through their physical existence, digital documents are dependent on hardware and software and possess a fragile structure.

In digital archival science, traditional methods—such as content-only approaches—are inadequate. Preserving only the content of a digital document (e.g., a Word file or an electronically signed PDF) is insufficient to maintain its legal validity. The following elements are vital in archiving e-documents:

• Format: The question of whether the document can be opened and accessed 50 years from now.
• Metadata: Information about who created the document, when, and under what context.
• Digital Signature and Time Stamp: Proof that the document has not been altered (integrity) and cannot be denied (non-repudiation).

To ensure that electronic documents retain their evidentiary value, strategies such as "technological migration" and "emulation" are applied, aiming to guarantee that documents remain verifiable in their authenticity even centuries later, despite format changes. In the digital age, the concept of "original order" no longer refers to physical arrangement but to the virtual and logical network of relationships among documents.^【12】