Acquisitions by War and Intentional Destruction

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Theft has been a concern and problem in libraries and archives since Ashurbanipal around 668 BCE. This does not include acquisitions as the result of war, as it was a common and accepted practice for conquerors to reallocate items from the lands they had overthrown.

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Sometimes instead of reallocating writings from the age of previous rulers, the items were destroyed. Whether as a way to rid the invaded peoples of their heritage or make them more receptive to the new pecking order, there were many motives behind the destruction of written works.

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As the saying goes, “history is written by the victors.” Whomever is in charge has the power to control the narrative of the past, present, and if they’re lucky, the future.

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People's Conservation Mishaps

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Because Greek culture was spontaneously and constantly changing in 400 BCE, people weren’t concerned with preserving written materials. “It is estimated that 90 percent of the documents from this period have been lost (Lamb, 4.6).”

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For many missing artifacts, historians are only aware that certain writings once existed, because they are referenced in works that have survived.