What is SARVAH
From fragmented records to connected investigation.
SARVAH is the research programme and infrastructure behind Qest™. It starts from an object, a document or a name, links it to the people, places, events and sources it involves, and keeps every claim tied to the record that supports it.
Identity is relational
An object is a point of departure, not the end of a search.
An object’s identity develops through the people who made, owned, described or disputed it, the places it passed through, the events that marked it and the sources that record each step. SARVAH treats the object as an entry point into that network — and records how firmly each link is supported.
Object
Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele, 1436
- People
- Jan van Eyck, painter · Joris van der Paele, donor — both named on the frame.
- Places
- Made for St Donatian’s, Bruges · Paris, 1794–1816 · Groeningemuseum, Bruges, today.
- Events
- Completed 1436 · Confiscated 21 August 1794 · Returned 1816.
- Sources
- Inscription on the frame · Museum collection record · Scholarly publications.
- Hypothesis
- Epitaph over the donor’s grave, or altarpiece? Not settled.
- Open question
- A specialist publication gives 1440 for the second chaplaincy; Wikipedia articles give 1442 (no reference) and 1443 (citing Rothstein, 2005). The underlying documents remain to be examined.
Four commitments
What SARVAH holds to, in every investigation.
Evidence stays traceable
Every proposition remains connected to its source, its context and its provenance. Results are never detached from their sources.
Claims are not facts
SARVAH records who asserted what, when and on which evidence, so competing hypotheses can be compared rather than flattened into a single answer.
Uncertainty stays visible
Contradictions, gaps and weak evidence are recorded as findings. They define the next question instead of being hidden.
People can advance an investigation
With consent and appropriate permissions, an open question can be directed to the researchers, custodians, collectors or descendants able to contribute. In development.
Built to interoperate
Connect across systems, without replacing them.
Museums, archives and research infrastructures should not have to surrender their systems for evidence to be connected across them. SARVAH links to established authorities and vocabularies and preserves the origin of every record it uses.
Human judgement
Expertise remains central.
Software helps structure, compare and navigate evidence. Interpretation, attribution and the significance of what is found remain matters of human expertise. SARVAH does not authenticate or value works.
“Truth does not emerge from a single answer. It is woven.”