definitively placed in time

This expression, innocently supplied by an earlier Curator, has troubled researchers since the first tertiaryTexts (finding aids) appeared in the Archives. It is commonly understood that the Writings appearing beneath the heading «UNKNOWN PROVENANCE» were composed later than those gathered under the other timeBands, {The Age of the SCHOLAR}, {The Age of EGDERUS}, and {The ANCIENTS}. The basis of this assumption seems to be that some of the Writings of Unknown Provenance contain references to older Writings, though most do not. In other words, in contrast to Writings assigned to other 'timeBands', the 'placement in time' of the Writings of Unknown Provenance is not their defining characteristic: that essential quality would be the fact that the story of their migration from some original position — in time or place — cannot be (or at any rate has not yet been) determined.