The writing of a definitive universal history of archival practice from its origins to the present day presupposes a perfect understanding of the history of all civilisations, on each continent and throughout recorded time. The Gordian knot of a proposed history of archival practice lies in the use of the word 'archives' itself, and in the many variants of meaning which have been ascribed to it in different countries and cultures. The identity crisis of the archival profession, common to many parts of the world, is of long standing. It is worth distinguishing between a history of archives and a history of archival practice although the two are complementary. The former is a history of documents, the media on which they are written, of the typology of documents. A history of archival practice deals, rather, with the management, including the classification, arrangement and so on, of any information-bearing media, with the role and profession of the archivist.