# How archival data are consumed?
**URL:** https://community.temporal.io/t/how-archival-data-are-consumed/6008
**Category:** Community Support
**Tags:** archival
**Created:** [September 19, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-archival-data-are-consumed/6008 "2022-09-19T06:49:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@whitecrow](https://community.temporal.io/u/whitecrow)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2022, 6:49am UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-archival-data-are-consumed/6008/1 "2022-09-19T06:49:07Z")
> **[What is Archival? | Temporal Documentation](https://docs.temporal.io/concepts/what-is-archival/)**
>
> Archival is a feature that automatically backs up Event Histories from Temporal Cluster persistence to a custom blob store after the Closed Workflow Execution retention period is reached.
The doccument introduces how to achive temporal records.
But it does not explain how the achival data can be consumed, so I do not know what it is used for.
Any more instrctions about this feature?
---
### Author:  [@tihomir](https://community.temporal.io/u/tihomir)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2022, 1:21pm UTC](https://community.temporal.io/t/how-archival-data-are-consumed/6008/2 "2022-09-19T13:21:24Z")
You can use tctl, for example:
`tctl wf listarchived -h`
Or via [ListArchivedExecutions](https://github.com/temporalio/api/blob/master/temporal/api/workflowservice/v1/service.proto#L283) api from your sdks.
And you should be able to get histories by describing it, for example:
```auto
tctl wf desc -h
tctl wf show -h
```
Note that for list queries, visibility query syntax for archival is limited and varies depending on the provider you use, see readmes for [s3](https://github.com/temporalio/temporal/tree/master/common/archiver/s3store) and [gcloud](https://github.com/temporalio/temporal/tree/master/common/archiver/gcloud).