fragment of an old document; scrap of a historical manuscript
Formal or literary term for a surviving piece of an ancient or historical document, often used in contexts such as archives, museums, or scholarly works.
Several fragments of Heian-period documents are on display at this museum.
From the scraps of old sutras, we can glimpse the religious practices of that time.
Compound of 断 (dan, 'cut off, fragment') and 簡 (kan, 'document, letter'). The exact historical derivation is uncertain, but the word is conventionally associated with surviving pieces of old writings.