Historical document

Significant historical documents can be deeds, laws, accounts of battles (often given by the victors or persons sharing their viewpoint), or the exploits of the powerful.

Though these documents are of historical interest, they do not detail the daily lives of ordinary people, or the way society functioned.

Anthropologists, historians and archeologists generally are more interested in documents that describe the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, indicating what they ate, their interaction with other members of their households and social groups, and their states of mind.

[1] Greek ostraka provide good examples of historical documents from "among the common people".

Some companies and government entities are attempting to increase the number of documents that will survive the passage of time, by taking into account the preservation issues, and either printing documents in a manner that would increase the likelihood of them surviving indefinitely, or placing selected documents in time capsules or other special storage environments.

The original signed United States Declaration of Independence , now on exhibit at the Charters of Freedom Rotunda at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
A Gutenberg Bible printed in the 1450s on display at the US Library of Congress