Office of Anachronism Control

Correction Notice to an Accession Record of 1748

HAEB-CN-1748-7 AVAILABLE CAP Rev. 12.4

Collection

Museum Accession Correction Notices

Access state

AVAILABLE

Custodial office

Office of Anachronism Control

Cataloged

August 21, 2026

Notice

Notice number: HAEB-CN-1748-7 Issuing office: Office of Anachronism Control Date of issue: August 21, 2026 Date of receipt: 1748 Governing authority: HAEB Directive 6.3, Handling of Out-of-Period Property

Addressee: The Registrar, receiving institution, a provincial antiquities collection in the Kingdom of Naples. The institution’s name is recorded in the case file and is not reproduced in public correspondence.

Subject: Accession 1748.114. Correction of accession record. Object is government property.

1. Purpose

This notice requires the correction of one accession record. It does not request the return of the object, which has not been away.

2. Authority

The Bureau acts under Directive 6.3 and under the Continuity and Prior Events Act of 1908, as amended retroactively. The addressee is advised that the Act’s application to 1748 is not affected by the Act’s date, and that the Bureau’s authority in this matter is not contingent on the addressee’s ability to locate the Act.

3. The accession record as received

The record consists of one card in a numbered sequence. It reads, in full:

One instrument, black, of no known use, taken from the ash. Not antique. Given by the workmen. Placed with the curiosities.

The card is legible, correctly numbered, and filed in sequence. The Bureau commends the sequence.

4. Corrections required

1. Field, Given by. The object was not given. It was recovered. Recovery from ash is not a conveyance of title. Amend to: received in the course of an internal transfer in progress.
2. Field, Not antique. Affirmed. The determination is correct. The reasoning recorded on the card is not affirmed, and the Bureau requests that it not be repeated in any published catalog.
3. Field, Of no known use. Amend to: use approved 2019.
4. Field, Placed with the curiosities. Amend to: held on behalf of the issuing office. The object is government property of the United States and was so at the moment of recovery, at the moment of loss of the ash, and throughout.
5. Field, Date of accession, 1748. Retained without amendment. The Bureau does not correct a date that a party has recorded correctly.

The corrected card must retain the original wording legibly beneath the correction. A correction that conceals the record it corrects is not a correction.

5. Determination of custody

The object is Field Device 7, recorded in the Bureau’s evidence register as EV-0079-7.

Custody has been continuous since 79. The interval between 79 and 1748, being 1,669 years, is recorded as an internal transfer in progress. The further interval between 1748 and the object’s entry into Bureau inventory in 2026, being 278 years, is recorded as receiving delay.

Neither interval meets the definition of loss under Directive 6.3, which provides that an object in continuous government custody may not be classified as lost while an appeal remains open. The appeal remains open. It was opened by the Office of Anachronism Control against a determination of the Office of Anachronism Control.

The addressee is not liable for the interval and is thanked for the storage.

6. Historical context provided for the registrar’s convenience

Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE and buried the site in ash and pumice. Organized excavation began in 1748 under royal patronage at Naples, a decade or so after work began at the neighbouring buried settlement. The site was not securely identified as Pompeii until 1763. Portable finds from the earliest seasons were removed to royal collections and recorded unevenly.

The Bureau does not dispute any of the foregoing. The Bureau disputes the accession.

7. Labeling and conservation

The object bears an adhesive maintenance label citing Current Approved Past, Revision 12.2. Revision 12.2 was not issued.

The label is government property and is not to be removed, cleaned, transcribed, photographed, or described in any catalog entry, condition report, or conservation record. Institutions that have already transcribed the label should retain the transcription and take no further action.

The object may not be displayed with an interpretive panel. It may be displayed with its accession number.

8. Compliance

Corrections must be entered within 30 days of receipt.

Receipt is recorded as 1748. The Bureau has recorded the corrections as entered.

9. Effect of noncompliance

None. See section 8.

10. Records created by this notice

1. The corrected accession card, retained by the addressee.
2. The Bureau’s file copy of the card as received, retained permanently.
3. HAEB Form 17-B, Declaration of Out-of-Period Property, filed by the Office of Anachronism Control on the addressee’s behalf and signed on the addressee’s behalf.
4. One reversal of a property write-off, entered against the 2026 property loss report.
5. This notice, which is filed with the accession record it corrects and is therefore part of the accession record.

11. Certification

The Bureau certifies that the object has remained in government custody at all times, that the addressee has at no point held title, and that no loss has occurred.

The Bureau regrets that the accession record was incomplete for 278 years and notes that the record was complete when it was made.

No historical effect was identified