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History vocabulary · Historiography and Historical Thinking

Archival silence

Meaning in history, with examples

nounAdvanced term

In history, archival silence means: An absence or weak representation in surviving records resulting from how records were created, kept or lost.

In Turkish: arşiv sessizliği

How it is used

Silence does not prove an event never occurred; investigate the processes behind the gap.

Example sentences

  1. The archival silence around servants reflects who was allowed to produce records.

    Record-making power shapes whose experiences remain visible.

  2. Fire damage explained part of the archival silence for that decade.

    Loss after creation can produce silence as well as initial exclusion.

Common collocations

  • an archival silence
  • investigate archival silences
  • archiveA collection of historical records kept for long-term use, or the building or institution where such records are stored and made available to researchers.
  • source criticismThe careful evaluation of a historical source to judge where it came from, who made it and why, and how reliable and useful it is for a particular question.

More terms: Historiography and Historical Thinking

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