Provenance

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The provenance of an artifact, Commodity, or other object is the place and time of its origin.

When used with respect to scientific data, provenance indicates the series of interconnected experimental and processing steps that have produced the data (see scientific workflow).

Provenance is a particularly large concern when it comes to works of Art; a documented provenance for a piece demonstrates that it is not a Forgery; it was indeed made by the artist given credit for it. The history of previous owners demonstrates also that the work was not stolen, and that a seller has good title to convey to a purchaser.

For similar reasons, provenance is important in Archaeology and palaeontology. Here, while the concerns about forgery remain, at least for human artifacts, an accurate provenance for a find can reveal information about its date. Finds that remain in situ are always much more informative than those that have been removed by "collectors;" scientists can learn much about their origins from the environment in which a find was located, but the surrounding dirt and dust is seldom of interest to pot-hunters or treasure-seekers.

In Archeology, the original in-situ find of an "object" still may not yield its "provenance". Artifacts were often stolen by societies, kingdoms, etc. ... So the original provenance of the object may still have to be researched, by archeological records. Often the records of kingdoms stated how they removed items back to their countries, as their "booty", so often a clear list of the "missing objects" exist, ... and the location of the last recorded, known, position of the item ...! (This also occurs in Paleontology where a " derived class of " fossil, may be "in-situ", but may have actually been produced by the erosion of a nearby mountain, or outcrop.)

In archival or records-management practice, provenance is the office of origin, or person or agency that created or collected records in the course of their activities. This definition differs from the museum definition of provenance, which refers to the successive ownership or possession of an item, not its creation.

See also: Chain of custody