This class comprises all things in the universe of discourse of the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model. It is an abstract concept providing for three general properties:Identification by name or appellation, and in particular by a preferred identifierClassification by type, allowing further refinement of the specific subclass an instance belongs to Attachment of free text and other unstructured data for the expression of anything not captured by formal propertiesAll other classes within the CIDOC CRM are directly or indirectly specialisations of E1 CRM Entity.
This class comprises all phenomena, such as the instances of E4 Periods and E5 Events, which happen over a limited extent in time. This extent in time must be contiguous, i.e., without gaps. In case the defining kinds of phenomena for an instance of E2 Temporal Entity cease to happen, and occur later again at another time, we regard that the former instance of E2 Temporal Entity has ended and a new instance has come into existence. In more intuitive terms, the same event cannot happen twice.In some contexts, such phenomena are also called perdurants. This class is disjoint from E77 Persistent Item and is an abstract class that typically has no direct instances. E2 Temporal Entity is specialized into E4 Period, which applies to a particular geographic area (defined with a greater or lesser degree of precision), and E3 Condition State, which applies to instances of E18 Physical Thing.
This class comprises sets of coherent phenomena or cultural manifestations occurring in time and space.It is the social or physical coherence of these phenomena that identify an instance of E4 Period and not the associated spatiotemporal extent. This extent is only the “ground” or space in an abstract physical sense that the actual process of growth, spread and retreat has covered. Consequently, different periods can overlap and coexist in time and space, such as when a nomadic culture exists in the same area and time as a sedentary culture. This also means that overlapping land use rights, common among first nations, amounts to overlapping periods.Often, this class is used to describe prehistoric or historic periods such as the “Neolithic Period”, the “Ming Dynasty” or the “McCarthy Era”, but also geopolitical units and activities of settlements are regarded as special cases of E4 Period. However, there are no assumptions about the scale of the associated phenomena. In particular all events are seen as synthetic processes consisting of coherent phenomena. Therefore, E4 Period is a superclass of E5 Event. For example, a modern clinical birth, an instance of E67 Birth, can be seen as both a single event, i.e., an instance of E5 Event, and as an extended period, i.e., an instance of E4 Period, that consists of multiple physical processes and complementary activities performed by multiple instances of E39 Actor.As the actual extent of an instance of E4 Period in spacetime we regard the trajectories of the participating physical things during their participation in an instance of E4 Period. This includes the open spaces via which these things have interacted and the spaces by which they had the potential to interact during that period or event in the way defined by the type of the respective period or event. Examples include the air in a meeting room transferring the voices of the participants. Since these phenomena are fuzzy, we assume the spatiotemporal extent to be contiguous, except for cases of phenomena spreading out over islands or other separated areas, including geopolitical units distributed over disconnected areas such as islands or colonies.Whether the trajectories necessary for participants to travel between these areas are regarded as part of the spatiotemporal extent or not has to be decided in each case based on a concrete analysis, taking use of the sea for other purposes than travel, such as fishing, into consideration. One may also argue that the activities to govern disconnected areas imply travelling through spaces connecting them and that these areas hence are spatially connected in a way, but it appears counterintuitive to consider for instance travel routes in international waters as extensions of geopolitical units.Consequently, an instance of E4 Period may occupy a number of disjoint spacetime volumes, however there must not be a discontinuity in the time-span covered by these spacetime volumes. This means that an instance of E4 Period must be contiguous in time. If it has ended in all areas, it has ended as a whole. However, it may end in one area before another, such as in the Polynesian migration, and it continues as long as it is ongoing in at least one area.We model E4 Period as a subclass of E2 Temporal Entity and of E92 Spacetime Volume. The latter is intended as a phenomenal spacetime volume as defined in CIDOC CRMgeo (Doerr Hiebel, 2013). By virtue of this multiple inheritance, we can discuss the physical extent of an instance of E4 Period without representing each instance of it together with an instance of its associated spacetime volume. This model combines two quite different kinds of substance: an instance of E4 Period is a phenomenon while an instance of E92 Spacetime Volume is an aggregation of points in spacetime. However, the real spatiotemporal extent of an instance of E4 Period is regarded to be unique to it due to all its details and fuzziness; its identity and existence depends uniquely on the identity of the instance of E4 Period. Therefore, this multiple inheritance is unambiguous and effective and furthermore corresponds to the intuitions of natural language.Typical use of this class in cultural heritage documentation is for documenting cultural and artistic periods. There are two different conceptualisations of ‘artistic style’, defined either by physical features or by historical context. For example, “Impressionism” can be viewed as a period in the European sphere of influence lasting from approximately 1870 to 1905 during which paintings with particular characteristics were produced by a group of artists that included (among others) Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley and Degas. Alternatively, it can be regarded as a style applicable to all paintings sharing the characteristics of the works produced by the Impressionist painters, regardless of historical context. The first interpretation is an instance of E4 Period, and the second defines morphological object types that fall under E55 Type.A geopolitical unit as a specific case of an instance of E4 Period is the set of activities and phenomena related to the claim of power, the consequences of belonging to a jurisdictional area and an administrative system that establishes a geopolitical unit. Examples from the modern period are countries or administrative areas of countries such as districts whose actions and structures define activities and phenomena in the area that they intend to govern. The borders of geopolitical units are often defined in contracts or treaties although they may deviate from the actual practice. The spatiotemporal properties of Geopolitical units can be modelled through the properties inherited from E92 Spacetime Volume.Another specific case of an instance of E4 Period is the actual extent of the set of activities and phenomena as evidenced by their physical traces that define a settlement, such as the populated period of Nineveh.
This class comprises distinct, delimited and coherent processes and interactions of a material nature, in cultural, social or physical systems, involving and affecting instances of E77 Persistent Item in a way characteristic of the kind of process. Typical examples are meetings, births, deaths, actions of decision taking, making or inventing things, but also more complex and extended ones such as conferences, elections, building of a castle, or battles.While the continuous growth of a tree lacks the limits characteristic of an event, its germination from a seed does qualify as an event. Similarly, the blowing of the wind lacks the distinctness and limits of an event, but a hurricane, flood or earthquake would qualify as an event. Mental processes are considered as events, in cases where they are connected with the material externalization of their results; for example, the creation of a poem, a performance or a change of intention that becomes obvious from subsequent actions or declarations.The effects of an instance of E5 Event may not lead to relevant permanent changes of properties or relations of the items involved in it, for example an unrecorded performance. Of course, in order to be documented, some kind of evidence for an event must exist, be it witnesses, traces or products of the event.While instances of E4 Period always require some form of coherence between its constituent phenomena, in addition, the essential constituents of instances of E5 Event should contribute to an overall effect; for example, the statements made during a meeting and the listening of the audience.Viewed at a coarse level of detail, an instance of E5 Event may appear as if it had an ‘instantaneous’ overall effect, but any process or interaction of material nature in reality have an extent in time and space. At a fine level, instances of E5 Event may be analysed into component phenomena and phases within a space and timeframe, and as such can be seen as a period, regardless of the size of the phenomena. The reverse is not necessarily the case: not all instances of E4 Period give rise to a noteworthy overall effect and are thus not instances of E5 Event.
This class comprises actions intentionally carried out by instances of E39 Actor that result in changes of state in the cultural, social, or physical systems documented. This notion includes complex, composite and long-lasting actions such as the building of a settlement or a war, as well as simple, short-lived actions such as the opening of a door.
This class comprises instances of E7 Activity that are undertaken to create, alter or change instances of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing.This class includes the production of an item from raw materials and other so far undocumented objects. It also includes the conservation treatment of an object.Since the distinction between modification and production is not always clear, modification is regarded as the more generally applicable concept. This implies that some items may be consumed or destroyed in an instance of E11 Modification, and that others may be produced as a result of it. An event should also be documented using an instance of E81 Transformation if it results in the destruction of one or more objects and the simultaneous production of others using parts or material from the originals. In this case, the new items have separate identities.An activity undertaken on an object which was designed to alter it, but which, in fact, it did not in any seemingly significant way (such as the application of a solvent during conservation which failed to dissolve any part of the object), is still considered as an instance of E11 Modification. Typically, any such activity will leave at least forensic traces of evidence on the object.If the instance of E29 Design or Procedure utilized for the modification prescribes the use of specific materials, they should be documented using property P68 foresees use of (use foreseen by): E57 Material of E29 Design or Procedure, rather than via P126 employed (was employed in): E57 Material.
This class comprises activities that are designed to, and succeed in, creating one or more new items. It specializes the notion of modification into production. The decision as to whether or not an object is regarded as new is context sensitive. Normally, items are considered “new” if there is no obvious overall similarity between them and the consumed items and material used in their production. In other cases, an item is considered “new” because it becomes relevant to documentation by a modification. For example, the scribbling of a name on a potsherd may make it a voting token. The original potsherd may not be worth documenting, in contrast to the inscribed one. This entity can be collective: the printing of a thousand books, for example, would normally be considered a single event. An event should also be documented using an instance of E81 Transformation if it results in the destruction of one or more objects and the simultaneous production of others using parts or material from the originals. In this case, the new items have separate identities and matter is preserved, but identity is not.
This class comprises the actions of making assertions about one property of an object or any single relation between two items or concepts. The type of the property asserted to hold between two items or concepts can be described by the property P177 assigned property of type (is type of property assigned): E55 Type. For example, the class describes the actions of people making propositions and statements during certain scientific/scholarly procedures, e.g., the person and date when a condition statement was made, an identifier was assigned, the museum object was measured, etc. Which kinds of such assignments and statements need to be documented explicitly in structures of a schema rather than free text, depends on whether this information should be accessible by structured queries.This class allows for the documentation of how the respective assignment came about, and whose opinion it was. Note that all instances of properties described in a knowledge base are the opinion of someone. Per default, they are the opinion of the team maintaining the knowledge base. This fact must not individually be registered for all instances of properties provided by the maintaining team, because it would result in an endless recursion of whose opinion was the description of an opinion. Therefore, the use of instances of E13 Attribute Assignment marks the fact, that the maintaining team is in general neutral to the validity of the respective assertion, but registers someone else’s opinion and how it came about.All properties assigned in such an action can also be seen as directly relating the respective pair of items or concepts. Multiple use of instances of E13 Attribute Assignment may possibly lead to a collection of contradictory values. All cases of properties in this model that are also described indirectly through a subclass of E13 Attribute Assignment are characterised as "short cuts" of a path via this subclass. This redundant modelling of two alternative views is preferred because many implementations may have good reasons to model either the action of assertion or the short cut, and the relation between both alternatives can be captured by simple rules.
This class comprises actions measuring quantitative physical properties and other values that can be determined by a systematic, objective procedure of direct observation of particular states of physical reality. An instance of E16 Measurement may use simple counting or tools, such as yardsticks or radiation detection devices. The interest is in the method and care applied, so that the reliability of the result may be judged at a later stage, or research continued on the associated documents. The date of the event is important for dimensions, which may change value over time, such as the length of an object subject to shrinkage. Methods and devices employed should be associated with instances of E16 Measurement by properties such as P33 used specific technique: E29 Design or Procedure, P125 used object of type: E55 Type, P16 used specific object (was used for): E70 Thing, whereas basic techniques such as "carbon-14 dating" should be encoded using P2 has type (is type of): E55 Type. Details of methods and devices reused or reusable in other instances of E16 Measurement should be documented for these entities rather than the measurements themselves, whereas details of particular execution may be documented by free text or by instantiating adequate sub-activities, if the detail may be of interest for an overarching query.Regardless whether a measurement is made by an instrument or by human senses, it represents the initial transition from physical reality to information without any other documented information object in between within the reasoning chain that would represent the result of the interaction of the observer or device with reality. Therefore, determining properties of an instance of E90 Symbolic Object is regarded as an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment, which may be inferred from observing and measuring representative carriers. In the case that the carrier can be named, the property P16 used specific object (was used for): should be used to indicate the instance(s) of E18 Physical Thing that was used as the empirical basis for the attribute assignment. For instance, inferring properties of depicted items using image material, such as satellite images, is not regarded as an instance of E16 Measurement, but as a subsequent instance of E13 Attribute Assignment. Rather, only the production of the images, understood as arrays of radiation intensities, is regarded as an instance of E16 Measurement. The same reasoning holds for other sensor data.
This class comprises all persistent physical items with a relatively stable form, human-made or natural.Depending on the existence of natural boundaries of such things, the CIDOC CRM distinguishes the instances of E19 Physical Object from instances of E26 Physical Feature, such as holes, rivers, pieces of land etc. Most instances of E19 Physical Object can be moved (if not too heavy), whereas features are integral to the surrounding matter.An instance of E18 Physical Thing occupies not only a particular geometric space at any instant of its existence, but in the course of its existence it also forms a trajectory through spacetime, which occupies a real, that is phenomenal, volume in spacetime. We include in the occupied space the space filled by the matter of the physical thing and all its inner spaces, such as the interior of a box. For the purpose of more detailed descriptions of the presence of an instance of E18 Physical Thing in space and time it can be associated with its specific instance of E92 Spacetime Volume by the property P196 defines (is defined by). The CIDOC CRM is generally not concerned with amounts of matter in fluid or gaseous states, as long as they are not confined in an identifiable way for an identifiable minimal time-span.
This class comprises all persistent physical items of any size that are purposely created by human activity. This class comprises, besides others, Human-Made objects, such as a sword, and Human-Made features, such as rock art. For example, a “cup and ring” carving on bedrock is regarded as instance of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing.Instances of Human-Made thing may be the result of modifying pre-existing physical things, preserving larger parts or most of the original matter and structure, which poses the question if they are new or even Human-Made, the respective interventions of production made on such original material should be obvious and sufficient to regard that the product has a new, distinct identity and intended function and is human-made. Substantial continuity of the previous matter and structure in the new product can be documented by describing the production process also as an instance of E81 Transformation.Whereas interventions of conservation and repair are not regarded to produce a new Human-Made thing, the results of preparation of natural history specimens that substantially change their natural or original state should be regarded as physical Human-Made things, including the uncovering of petrified biological features from a solid piece of stone. On the other side, scribbling a museum number on a natural object should not be regarded to make it Human-Made. This notwithstanding, parts, sections, segments, or features of a physical Human-Made thing may continue to be non-Human-Made and preserved during the production process, for example natural pearls used as a part of an eardrop.
This class comprises non-material products of our minds and other human produced data that have become objects of a discourse about their identity, circumstances of creation or historical implication. The production of such information may have been supported by the use of technical devices such as cameras or computers.Characteristically, instances of this class are created, invented or thought by someone, and then may be documented or communicated between persons. Instances of E28 Conceptual Object have the ability to exist on more than one particular carrier at the same time, such as paper, electronic signals, marks, audio media, paintings, photos, human memories, etc.They cannot be destroyed. They exist as long as they can be found on at least one carrier or in at least one human memory. Their existence ends when the last carrier and the last memory are lost.
This class comprises signs, either meaningful or not, or arrangements of signs following a specific syntax, that are used or can be used to refer to and identify a specific instance of some class or category within a certain context.Instances of E41 Appellation do not identify things by their meaning, even if they happen to have one, but instead by convention, tradition, or agreement. Instances of E41 Appellation are cultural constructs; as such, they have a context, a history, and a use in time and space by some group of users. A given instance of E41 Appellation can have alternative forms, i.e., other instances of E41 Appellation that are always regarded as equivalent independent from the thing it denotes.Different languages may use different appellations for the same thing, such as the names of major cities. Some appellations may be formulated using a valid noun phrase of a particular language. In these cases, the respective instances of E41 Appellation should also be declared as instances of E33 Linguistic Object. Then the language using the appellation can be declared with the property P72 has language: E56 Language.Instances of E41 Appellation may be used to identify any instance of E1 CRM Entity and sometimes are characteristic for instances of more specific subclasses E1 CRM Entity, such as for instances of E52 Time-Span (for instance “dates”), E39 Actor, E53 Place or E28 Conceptual Object. Postal addresses and E-mail addresses are characteristic examples of identifiers used by services transporting things between clients.Even numerically expressed identifiers for extents in space or time are also regarded as instances of E41 Appellation, such as Gregorian dates or spatial coordinates, even though they allow for determining some time or location by a known procedure starting from a reference point and by virtue of that fact play a double role as instances of E59 Primitive Value.E41 Appellation should not be confused with the act of naming something. Cf. E15 Identifier Assignment
This class comprises abstract temporal extents, in the sense of Galilean physics, having a beginning, an end and a duration. Instances of E52 Time-Span have no semantic connotations about phenomena happening within the temporal extent they represent. They do not convey any meaning other than a positioning on the “time-line” of chronology. The actual extent of an instance of E52 Time-Span can be approximated by properties of E52 Time-Span giving inner and outer bounds in the form of dates (instances of E61 Time Primitive). Comparing knowledge about time-spans is fundamental for chronological reasoning.Some instances of E52 Time-Span may be defined as the actual, in principle observable, temporal extent of instances of E2 Temporal Entity via the property P4 has time-span (is time-span of): E52 Time-Span. They constitute phenomenal time-spans as defined in CRMgeo (Doerr Hiebel 2013). Since our knowledge of history is imperfect and physical phenomena are fuzzy in nature, the extent of phenomenal time-spans can only be described in approximation. An extreme case of approximation, might, for example, define an instance of E52 Time-Span having unknown beginning, end and duration. It may, nevertheless, be associated with other descriptions by which we can infer knowledge about it, such as in relative chronologies.Some instances of E52 may be defined precisely as representing a declaration of a temporal extent, as, for instance, done in a business contract. They constitute declarative time-spans as defined in CRMgeo (Doerr Hiebel 2013) and can be described via the property E61 Time Primitive P170 defines time (time is defined by): E52 Time-Span. When used as a common E52 Time-Span for two events, it will nevertheless describe them as being simultaneous, even if nothing else is known.
This class comprises extents in the natural space we live in, in particular on the surface of the Earth, in the pure sense of physics: independent from temporal phenomena and matter. They may serve describing the physical location of things or phenomena or other areas of interest. Geometrically, instances of E53 Place constitute single contiguous areas or a finite aggregation of disjoint areas in space which are each individually contiguous. They may have fuzzy boundaries. The instances of E53 Place are usually determined by reference to the position of “immobile” objects such as buildings, cities, mountains, rivers, or dedicated geodetic marks, but may also be determined by reference to mobile objects. A Place can be determined by combining a frame of reference and a location with respect to this frame. It is sometimes argued that instances of E53 Place are best identified by global coordinates or absolute reference systems. However, relative references are often more relevant in the context of cultural documentation and tend to be more precise. In particular, we are often interested in position in relation to large, mobile objects, such as ships. For example, the Place at which Nelson died is known with reference to a large mobile object – H.M.S Victory. A resolution of this Place in terms of absolute coordinates would require knowledge of the movements of the vessel and the precise time of death, either of which may be revised, and the result would lack historical and cultural relevance.Any instance of E18 Physical Thing can serve as a frame of reference for an instance of E53 Place. This may be documented using the property P157 is at rest relative to (provides reference space for).
This class comprises quantifiable properties that can be measured by some calibrated means and can be approximated by values, i.e., by points or regions in a mathematical or conceptual space, such as natural or real numbers, RGB values etc.An instance of E54 Dimension represents the empirical or theoretically derived quantity, including the precision tolerances resulting from the particular method or calculation. The identity of an instance of E54 Dimension depends on the method of its determination because each method may produce different values even when determining comparable qualities. For instance, the wingspan of a bird alive or dead is a different dimension. Thermoluninescence dating and Rehydroxylation [RHX] dating are different dimensions of temporal distance from now, even if they aim at dating the same object. The method of determination should be expressed using the property P2 has type (is type of). Note that simple terms such as “diameter” or “length” are normally insufficient to unambiguously describe a respective dimension. In contrast, “maximum linear extent” may be sufficient.The properties of the class E54 Dimension allow for expressing the numerical approximation of the values of instances of E54 Dimension adequate to the precision of the applied method of determination. If the respective quantity belongs to a non-discrete space according to the laws of physics, such as spatial distances, it is recommended to record them as approximations by intervals or regions of indeterminacy enclosing the assumed true values. For instance, a length of 5 cm may be recorded as 4.5-5.5 cm, according to the precision of the respective observation. Note, that comparability of values described in different units depends critically on the representation as value regions.Numerical approximations in archaic instances of E58 Measurement Unit used in historical records should be preserved. Equivalents corresponding to current knowledge should be recorded as additional instances of E54 Dimension, as appropriate.
This class comprises concepts denoted by terms from thesauri and controlled vocabularies used to characterize and classify instances of CIDOC CRM classes. Instances of E55 Type represent concepts in contrast to instances of E41 Appellation which are used to name instances of CIDOC CRM classes. E55 Type is the CIDOC CRM’s interface to domain specific ontologies and thesauri. These can be represented in the CIDOC CRM as subclasses of E55 Type, forming hierarchies of terms, i.e., instances of E55 Type linked via P127 has broader term (has narrower term): E55 Type. Such hierarchies may be extended with additional properties.
This class comprises values of primitive data types of programming languages or database management systems and data types composed of such values used as documentation elements, as well as their mathematical abstractions. The instances of E59 Primitive Value and its subclasses are not considered elements of the universe of discourse the CIDOC CRM aims to define and analyse. Rather, they play the role of a symbolic interface between the scope of the model and the world of mathematical and computational manipulations and the symbolic objects they define and handle. In particular, they comprise lexical forms encoded as "strings" or series of characters and symbols based on encoding schemes (characterised by being a limited subset of the respective mathematical abstractions) such as UNICODE and values of datatypes that can be encoded in a lexical form, including quantitative specifications of time-spans and geometry. They have in common that instances of E59 Primitive Value define themselves by virtue of their encoded value, regardless of the nature of their mathematical abstractions. Therefore, in an implementation, instances of E59 Primitive should be represented directly in the encoded symbolic form supported by the respective platform, such as a character string or a formatted date. They must not be represented in an implementation indirectly via, another a universal resource identifier, which in turn is linked to the actual encoded symbolic form. In a concrete application, it is recommended that the primitive value system from a chosen implementation platform and/or data definition language be used to substitute for this class and its subclasses.
This class comprises events that bring into existence any instance of E77 Persistent Item. It may be used for temporal reasoning about things (intellectual products, physical items, groups of people, living beings) beginning to exist; it serves as a hook for determination of a “terminus post quem” or “terminus ante quem”.
This general class comprises discrete, identifiable, instances of E77 Persistent Item that are documented as single units, that either consist of matter or depend on being carried by matter and are characterized by relative stability. They may be intellectual products or physical things. They may for instance have a solid physical form, an electronic encoding, or they may be a logical concept or structure.
This class comprises discrete, identifiable human-made items that are documented as single units. These items are either intellectual products or human-made physical things, and are characterized by relative stability. They may for instance have a solid physical form, an electronic encoding, or they may be logical concepts or structures.
This class comprises those material or immaterial items to which instances of E30 Right, such as the right of ownership or use, can be applied. This is true for all instances of E18 Physical Thing. In the case of instances of E28 Conceptual Object, however, the identity of an instance of E28 Conceptual Object or the method of its use may be too ambiguous to reliably establish instances of E30 Right, as in the case of taxa and inspirations. Ownership of corporations is currently regarded as out of scope of the CIDOC CRM.
This class comprises items that have persistent characteristics of structural nature substantially related to their identity and their integrity, sometimes known as “endurants” in philosophy. Persistent Items may be physical entities, such as people, animals or things, conceptual entities such as ideas, concepts, products of the imagination or even names. Instances of E77 Persistent Item may be present or be part of interactions in different periods or events. They can repeatedly be recognized at disparate occasions during their existence by characteristics of structural nature. The respective characteristics need not be exactly the same during all the existence of an instance of E77 Persistent Item. Often, they undergo gradual change, still bearing some similarities with that of previous times, or disappear completely and new emerge. For instance, a person, from the time of being born on, will gradually change all its features and acquire new ones, such as a scar. Even the DNA in different body cells will develop defects and mutations. Nevertheless, relevant characteristics used should be sufficiently similar to recognize the instance for some substantial period of time. The more specific criteria that determine the identity of instances of subclasses of E77 Persistent Item may vary considerably and are described or referred to in the respective scope notes. The decision about which exact criteria to use depends on whether the observable behaviour of the respective part of reality such confined conforms to the reasoning the user is interested in. For example, a building can be regarded as no longer existing if it is dismantled and the materials reused in a different configuration. On the other hand, human beings go through radical and profound changes during their life-span, affecting both material composition and form, yet preserve their identity by other criteria, such as being bodily separated from other persons. Similarly, inanimate objects may be subject to exchange of parts and matter. On the opposite, the identity of a (version of a) text of a scientific publication is given by the exact arrangement of its relevant symbols. The main classes of objects that fall outside the scope of the E77 Persistent Item class are temporal objects such as periods, events and acts, and descriptive properties. An instance of E77 Persistent Item does not require actual knowledge of the identifying features of the instance being currently known. There may be cases, where the actual identifying features of an instance of E77 Persistent Item are not decidable at a particular state of knowledge.
This class comprises the activities that result in an instance of E18 Physical Thing being decreased by the removal of a part.Typical scenarios include the detachment of an accessory, the removal of a component or part of a composite object, or the deaccessioning of an object from a curated collection, an instance of E78 Curated Holding. If the instance of E80 Part Removal results in the total decomposition of the original object into pieces, such that the whole ceases to exist, the activity should instead be modelled as an instance of E81 Transformation, i.e., a simultaneous destruction and production. In cases where the part removed has no discernible identity prior to its removal but does have an identity subsequent to its removal, the activity should be modelled as both an instance of E80 Part Removal and E12 Production. This class of activities forms a basis for reasoning about the history, and continuity of identity over time, of objects that are removed from other objects, such as precious gemstones being extracted from different items of jewellery, or cultural artifacts being deaccessioned from different museum collections over their lifespan.
This class comprises identifiable symbols and any aggregation of symbols, such as characters, identifiers, traffic signs, emblems, texts, data sets, images, musical scores, multimedia objects, computer program code or mathematical formulae that have an objectively recognizable structure and that are documented as single units.It includes sets of signs of any nature, which may serve to designate something, or to communicate some propositional content. An instance of E90 Symbolic Object may or may not have a specific meaning, for example an arbitrary character string.In some cases, the content of an instance of E90 Symbolic Object may completely be represented by a serialized digital content model, such as a sequence of ASCII-encoded characters, an XML or HTML document, or a TIFF image. The property P3 has note and its subproperty P190 has symbolic content allow for the description of this content model. In order to disambiguate which symbolic level is the carrier of the meaning, the property P3.1 has type can be used to specify the encoding (e.g., "bit", "Latin character", RGB pixel).
This class comprises 4-dimensional point sets (volumes) in physical spacetime (in contrast to mathematical models of it) regardless their true geometric forms. They may derive their identity from being the extent of a material phenomenon or from being the interpretation of an expression defining an extent in spacetime. Intersections of instances of E92 Spacetime Volume, E53 Place and E52 Time-Span are also regarded as instances of E92 Spacetime Volume. An instance of E92 Spacetime Volume is either contiguous or composed of a finite number of contiguous subsets. Its boundaries may be fuzzy due to the properties of the phenomena it derives from or due to the limited precision up to which defining expression can be identified with a real extent in spacetime. The duration of existence of an instance of E92 Spacetime Volume is its projection on time.
This class comprises instances of E59 Primitive Value for space that should be implemented with appropriate validation, precision and references to spatial coordinate systems to express geometries on or relative to Earth, or on any other stable constellations of matter, relevant to cultural and scientific documentation.An instance of E94 Space Primitive defines an instance of E53 Place in the sense of a declarative place as elaborated in CRMgeo (Doerr Hiebel 2013), which means that the identity of the place is derived from its geometric definition. Such a declarative place may allow for the approximation of instances of E53 Place defined by the actual extent of some phenomenon, such as a settlement or a riverbed, or other forms of identification rather than by an instance of E94 Space Primitive. Note that using an instance of E94 Space Primitive for approximating the actual extent of some place always defines a (declarative) instance of E53 Place in its own right. Definitions of instances of E53 Place using different spatial reference systems are always definitions of different instances of E53 Place.Instances of E94 Space Primitive provide the ability to link CIDOC CRM encoded data to the kinds of geometries used in maps or Geoinformation systems. They may be used for visualization of the instances of E53 Place they define, in their geographic context and for computing topological relations between places based on these geometries. E94 Space Primitive is not further elaborated upon within this model. It is considered good practice to maintain compatibility with OGC standards.
This class comprises the activities that result in an instance of S10 Material Substantial being decreased by the removal of an amount of matter. Typical scenarios include the removal of a component or piece of a physical object, removal of an archaeological or geological layer, taking a tissue sample from a body or a sample of fluid from a body of water. The removed matter may acquire a persistent identity of different nature beyond the act of its removal, such as becoming a physical object in the narrower sense. Such cases should be modeled by using multiple instantiation with adequate concepts of creating the respective items.
This class comprises the activity that results in taking an amount of matter as sample for further analysis from a material substantial such as a body of water, a geological formation or an archaeological object. The removed matter may acquire a persistent identity of different nature beyond the act of its removal, such as becoming a physical object in the narrower sense. The sample is typically removed from a physical feature which is used as a frame of reference, the place of sampling. In case of non-rigid Material Substantials, the source of sampling may regarded not to be modified by the activity of sample taking.
This class comprises activities of taking a sample and measuring or analyzing it as one unit of activity, in which the sample is typically not identified and preserved beyond the context of this activity. Instances of this class describe the taking of one or more samples regardless whether they are explicitly identified in documentation or preserved beyond this activity. The dimensions observed by the respective measurement of this particular sample are regarded as dimensions of the instance of S10 Material Substantial at the place from which the samples were taken. Therefore, the class S3 Measurement by Sampling inherits the properties of S2 Sample Taking, O3 sampled from: S10 Material Substantial and O4 sampled at: E53 Place, and the properties of S21 Measurement O24 measured: S15 Observable Entity. It needs not instantiate the properties O5 removed: S13 Sample and O24 measured: S15 Observable Entity, if the sample is not documented beyond the context of the activity.
This class comprises the activity of gaining scientific knowledge about particular states of physical reality through empirical evidence, experiments and measurements. We define observation in the sense of natural sciences, as a kind of human activity: at some place and within some time-span, certain physical things and their behavior and interactions are observed by human sensory impression, and often enhanced by tools and measurement devices. Observed situations or dimensions may pertain to properties confined to a single instance of S15 Observable Entity or pertain to constellations of multiple instances and relations between them, in particular distances between them. The output of the internal processes of measurement devices that do not require additional human interaction are in general regarded as part of the observation and not as additional inference. Primary data from measurement devices are regarded in this model to be results of observation and can be interpreted as propositions believed to be true within the (known) tolerances and degree of reliability of the device. Measurements and witnessing of events are special cases of observations. Observations result in a belief that certain propositions held at a time within the time-span of the observation. In this model, the degree of confidence in the observed properties is regarded to be “true” by default, but could be described differently by adding a property P3 has note to an instance of S4 Observation
This class comprises the action of making propositions and statements about particular states of affairs in reality or in possible realities or categorical descriptions of reality by using inferences from other statements based on hypotheses and any form of formal or informal logic. It includes evaluations, calculations, and interpretations based on mathematical formulations and propositions.
This class comprises the action of concluding propositions on a respective reality from observational data by making evaluations based on mathematical inference rules and calculations using established hypotheses, such as the calculation of an earthquake epicenter. S6 Data Evaluation is not defined as S21/E16 Measurement; Secondary derivations of dimensions of an object from data measured by different processes are regarded as S6 Data Evaluation and not determining instances of Measurement in its own right. For instance, the volume of a statue concluded from a 3D model is an instance of S6 Data Evaluation and not of Measurement.
This class comprises activities of executing algorithms or software for simulating the behavior and the properties of a system of interacting components that form part of reality or not by using a mathematical model of the respective interactions. In particular it implies making predictions about the future behaviors of a system of interacting components of reality by starting simulation from an actually observed state, such as weather forecasts. Simulations may also be used to understand the effects of a theory, to compare theoretical predictions with reality, or to show differences with another theory.
This class comprises the action of making categorical hypotheses based on inference rules and theories; By categorical hypotheses we mean assumptions about the kinds of interactions and related kinds of structures of a domain that have the character of “laws” of nature or human behavior, be it necessary or probabilistic. Categorical hypotheses are developed by “induction” from finite numbers of observation and the absence of observations of particular kinds. As such, categorical hypotheses are always subject to falsification by new evidence. Instances of S8 Categorical Hypothesis Building include making and questioning categorical hypotheses.
This class comprises types of properties. Typically, instances of S9 Property Type would be taken from an ontology or terminological system. In particular, instances of this class can be used to describe in a parametric way what kind of properties the values in scientific data sets are about. By virtue of such descriptions, numeric data can be interpreted as sets of propositions in terms of a formal ontology, such as “concentration of nitrate”, observed in the ground water from a certain borehole.
This class comprises constellations of matter with a relative stability of any form sufficient to associate them with a persistent identity, such as being confined to certain extent, having a relative stability of form or structure, or containing a fixed amount of matter. In particular, it comprises physical things in the narrower sense and fluid bodies. It is an abstraction of physical substance for solid and non-solid things of matter.
This class comprises fixed amounts of matter specified as some air, some water, some soil, etc., defined by the total and integrity of their material content. In order to be able to identify and recognize in practice one instance of S11 Amount of Matter, some sort of confinement is needed that serves as a constraint for the enclosed matter and the integrity of the content, such as a bottle. In contrast to instances of E18 Physical Thing, no stability of form is required. The content may be put into another bottle without losing its identity. Subclasses may define very different identity conditions for the integrity of the content, such as chemical composition, or the sequence of layers of a bore core. Whereas an instance of E18 Physical Thing may gradually change form and chemical composition while preserving its identity, such as living beings, an instance of S11 Amount of Matter may lose its identifying features by such processes. What matters for the identity of an instance of S1 Amount of Matter is the preservation of a relevant composition from the initial state of definition onwards.
This class comprises fixed amounts of fluid (be they gas or liquid) defined by the total of its material content, typically molecules. They frequently acquire identity in laboratory practice by the fact of being kept or handled together within some adequate containers.
This class comprises instances of S11 Amount of Matter taken from some instance of S10 Material Substantial with the intention to be representative for some material qualities of the instance of S10 Material Substantial or part of it was taken for further analysis. We typically regard a sample as ceasing to exist when the respective representative qualities become corrupted, such as the purity of a water sample or the layering of a bore core.
This class comprises a mass of matter in fluid form environmentally constraint in some persistent form allowing for identifying it for the management or research of material phenomena, such as a part of the sea, a river, the atmosphere or the milk in a bottle. Fluids are generally defined by the continuity criterion which is characteristic of their substance: their amorphous matter is continuous and tends to flow. Therefore, contiguous amounts of matter within a fluid body may stay contiguous or at least be locally spatially confined for a sufficiently long time in order to be temporarily identified and traced. This is a much weaker concept of stability of form than the one we would apply to what one would call a physical object. In general, an instance of Fluid Body may gain or lose matter over time through so-called sources or sinks in its surface, in contrast to physical things, which may lose or gain matter by exchange of pieces such as spare parts or corrosion.
This class comprises instances of E5 Event or S10 Material Substantial (i.e. items or phenomena, such as physical things, their behaviour, states and interactions or events), that can be observed by measurement or detection devices or by human sensory impression including when enhanced by tools. In order to be observable, instances of E5 Event must consist of some interaction or action of material substance. In some cases, the spatiotemporal confinement of the event itself, such as a flash, a car stopping etc. marks the limits of a documented observation of an event. In other cases, such as the situation of a car passing by a certain object, the spatiotemporal limits of the event of observing itself, as well as the direction of attention or the orientation of used instruments, may constrain the observed detail of a larger process, e.g., noticing the sight of a car passing by; a light emission, etc. Conceptual objects manifest through their carriers such as books, digital media, or even human memory. Attributes of conceptual objects, such as number of words, can be observed on their carriers. If the respective properties between carriers differ, either they carry different instances of conceptual objects or the difference can be attributed to accidental deficiencies in one of the carriers. In that sense even immaterial objects are observable. By this model we address the fact that frequently, the actually observed carriers of conceptual objects are not explicitly identified in documentation, i.e., they are assumed to have existed but they are unknown as individuals.
This class comprises events or processes that result in (generate) physical things, man-made or natural, coming into being in the form by which they are later identified. The creation of a new physical item, at the same time, can be a result of an alteration (modification) – it can become a new thing due to an alteration activity.
This class comprises natural events or man-made processes that create, alter or change physical things, by affecting permanently their form or consistency without changing their identity. Examples include alterations on depositional features-layers by natural factors or disturbance by roots or insects, organic alterations, petrification, etc.
This class comprises activities of S4 Observation (substance) where an E39 Actor encounters an instance of E18 Physical Thing of a kind relevant for the mission of the observation or regarded as potentially relevant for some community (identity). This observation produces knowledge about the existence of the respective thing at a particular place in or on surrounding matter. This knowledge may be new to the group of people the actor belongs to. In that case we would talk about a discovery. The observer may recognize or assign an individual identity of the thing encountered or regard only the type as noteworthy in the associated documentation or report. In archaeology there is a particular interest if an object is found “in situ”, i.e. if its embedding in the surrounding matter supports the assumption that the object was not moved since the archaeologically relevant deposition event. The surrounding matter with the relative position of the object in it as well as the absolute position and time of the observation may be recorded in order to enable inferences about the history of the object. In Biology, additional parameters may be recorded like the kind of ecosystem, if the biological individual survives the observation, what detection or catching devices have been used or if the encounter event supported the detection of a new biological kind (“taxon”).
Any instance of this class is a physical feature with sufficient stability of form in itself and with respect to the physical object bearing it in order to associate a permanent reference space within which its form is invariant and at rest. The maximum volume in space that an instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature occupies defines uniquely a place for the feature with respect to its surrounding matter. Therefore we model S20 Rigid Physical Feature as a subclass of E26 Physical Feature and of E53 Place. The latter is intended as a phenomenal place as defined in CRMgeo (Doerr and Hiebel 2013). By virtue of this multiple inheritance we can discuss positions relative to the extent of an instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature without representing each instance of it together with an instance of its associated place. However, since the identity and existence of this place depends uniquely on the identity of the instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature as matter, this multiple inheritance is unambiguous and effective and furthermore corresponds to the intuitions of natural language. It shortcuts an implicit self-referential path from E26 Physical Feature through P156 occupies, E53 Place, P157 is at rest relative to E26 Physical Feature. In cases of instances of S20 Rigid Physical Feature on or in the surface of earth, the default reference is typically fixed to the closer environment of the tectonic plate or sea floor. In cases of features on mobile objects, the reference space is typically fixed to the geometry of the bearing object. Note that the reference space associated with the instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature may quite well be deformed over time, as long the continuity of its topology does not become unclear, such as the compression of dinosaur bones in geological layers, or the distortions of the hull of a ship by the waves of the sea. Defined in this way, the reference space can be used as a means to infer from current topological relationships past topological relationships of interest.
This class comprises actions measuring instances of S15 Observable Entity, properties of physical things, or phenomena, states and interactions or events, that can be determined by a systematic procedure. Primary data from measurement devices are regarded to be results of an observation process.
This class comprises physical features with relative stability of form and structure within a declared spatial volume of interest. The spatial extent of an instance of S22 Segment of Matter may be declared or defined by a researcher or observer usually because the arrangement and composition of substance is characteristic for the surrounding matter or can be interpreted as traces of its genesis and subsequent internal and external processes it was exposed to. The defining spatial extent is typically declared on a continuous matter by means of geometric determination without observable boundaries on all sides or any side. It may however be extracted at some point in time along the declared boundaries. An instance of S22 Segment of Matter is regarded to be existing from the time on it completely solidified with a structure that is still preserved in a recognizable way at the time of its spatial definition. Its existence is regarded to end when its respective integrity is partially or completely corrupted. Uncorrupted subsections of an instance of S22 Segment of Matter may continue to exist as segments of matter in their own right beyond the existence of the containing instance, and may have solidified before it. Typical examples are segments of archaeological or geological layers. They are regarded as uncorrupted even if they have undergone conformal deformations, such as compressions or shifts, as long as the effects of these deformations do not destroy the relevant structures of interest. This means that the defining spatial volume may be only geometrically valid for an instant of time for which it was declared, and undergo before and after deformations. In some cases, it may be possible to calculate the initial volume at the time of solidification, for instance for petrified bones compressed in Jurassic layers.
This class comprises activities of determining positions in space and time. The determined position is intended to approximate a part or all of the extent of the presence (instance of E93 Presence) of an instance of E18 Physical Thing or E4 Period of interest, such as the outer walls of an excavated settlement, the position of a ship sailing or the start and end of athlete's run in a competition. Characteristically, a theodolite or GPS device may be positioned on some persistent feature. Determining the position of the device will yield an approximation of the position of the feature of interest. Alternatively, some material item may be observed moving through a determined position at a given time. This class does not inherit properties from class S21 Measurement. A position determination is an evaluation of a combination of measurement of multiple associated distances and/or angles (instances of E54 Dimension) from a particular spot to certain reference points of previously known position in the same reference space. A particular role is played by the Earth's magnetic field and rotational axis as reference for an angle or direction. Often, the observed constituting dimensions are not documented, or hidden in an electronic device software. The determined position is given as an E94 Space Primitive corresponding to a declarative place. Together with the measured time-span covering the time-critical observations it forms a spacetime volume, which should normally overlap with the spatiotemporal extent of the thing or phenomenon of interest.
This class comprises the activity of dividing an instance of S13 Sample into new instances of S13 Sample. This activity describes cases of sub-sampling where the resulting instance maintains the characteristic qualities of the original instance. Any observations of these qualities made on the new instance also apply to the original one. This class should be used to model cases of splitting a homogenous sample into multiple ones.
This property associates an instance of S1 Matter Removal with the instance of S10 Material Substantial that this activity diminished. Although an instance of S1 Matter Removal activity normally concerns only one item of S10 Material Substantial, it is possible to imagine circumstances under which more than one item might be diminished by a single Matter Removal activity. An instance S1 Matter Removal activity requires to diminish at least one item of S10 Material Substantial. This may be realized by any of the subproperties of O1 diminished. Therefore the instantiation of a particular subproperty of O1 diminished is not necessary.
This property associates an instance of S1 Matter Removal with the instance of S11 Amount of Matter that it has removed.
This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance S10 Material Substantial from which a sample was taken. In particular, it may be a feature or a fluid body from which a sample was removed.
This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance of E53 Place ("spot") at which this activity sampled. It identifies the narrowest relevant area on the material substantial from which the sample was taken. This may be known or given in absolute terms or relative to an instance of the material substantial from which it was taken. If samples are taken from more than one spot, the sample taking activity must be documented by separate instances for each spot. The property P7 took place at, inherited from E4 Period, describes the position of the area in which the sampling activity occurred; this latter comprises the space within which operators and instruments were contained during the activity, and the sample taking spot.
This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance of S13 Sample that was taken during the activity.
This property associates an instance of S12 Amount of Fluid with an instance of S14 Fluid Body which formed or forms part of it. It allows instances of S14 Fluid Body to be analyzed into elements of S12 Amount of Fluid.
This property associates an instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature with an instance of S10 Material Substantial that it partially or completely confines. It describes cases in which rigid features such as stratigraphic layers, walls, dams, riverbeds, etc. form the boundaries of some item such as another stratigraphic layer or the waters of a river.
This property associates an instance of S4 Observation with an instance of S15 Observable Entity that was observed. Specifically it describes that a thing, a feature, a phenomenon or its reaction is observed by an activity of Observation.
This property associates an instance of S4 Observation with the instance of S9 Property Type for which the observation provides a value or evidence, such as “concentration of nitrate” observed in the water from a particular borehole. Encoding the observed property by type, observed entity and value (properties O9, O10, O16) is a method to circumscribe the reification of the observed property by the respective instance of S4 Observation. In an RDFS encoding, this circumscription can be transformed into an explicit representation of the observed property in terms of a formal ontology either by use of a reification construct or by the use of a Named Graph containing the observed property. The latter representation allows for more formal reasoning with the model, the former is more flexible about the kinds of observations.
This property associates an instance of S6 Data Evaluation with an instance of E54 Dimension that a data evaluation activity has assigned. In that case, dimensions may be determined by making evaluations on observational data based on mathematical inference rules and calculations.
This property associates an instance of S6 Data Evaluation with an instance of S15 Observable Entity for which a data evaluation activity provides a description. This description of any Observable Entity is based on data evaluations.
This property associates an instance of S15 Observable Entity with an instance of E54 Dimension that the observable entity has. It offers no information about how and when an E54 Dimension was established. In case the instance of S15 Observable Entity is more specifically an instance of E18 Physical Thing, using the property O12 has dimension (is dimension of) is equivalent to using the property P43 has dimension (is dimension of). In other words, using the one implies the other.
This property associates an instance of E5 Event that triggered another instance of E5 Event with the latter. It identifies the interaction between events: an event can activate (trigger) other events in a target system that is in a situation of sustained tension, such as a trap or an unstable mountain slope giving way to a land slide after a rain or earthquake. In that sense the triggering event is interpreted as a cause. However, the association of the two events is based on their temporal proximity, with the triggering event ending when the triggered event starts.
This property associates an instance of S10 Material Substantial with the instance of E53 Place that this substance occupied. It describes the space filled (occupied) by a physical matter. This property is the development of the shortcut expressed in the proposition of classification: “S20 Physical Feature” isA “E53 Place”. This property is equivalent to P156 occupies (is occupied by) with domain E18 Physical Thing and range E53 Place.
This property associates a value assigned to an entity observed by S4 Observation.
This property associates an instance of S17 Physical Genesis event with an instance of E18 Physical Thing that the event generated.
This property associates an instance of S18 Alteration process with an instance of E18 Physical Thing which was altered by this activity.
This property associates an instance of S19 Encounter Event with an instance of E18 Physical Thing that was encountered or observed as present during the event.
This property associates the activity of a Sample Taking with the type of the location part from which a sample was taken. It is a shortcut of the property O4 sampled at, and it is used as an alternative property, identifying features and material substantial as types of parts of sampling positions.
This property associates an instance of S19 Encounter Event with an instance of E53 Place at which the things, which were encountered, were observed to be present. This may be given in absolute terms or in terms relative to the observed thing. The associated place must be within the boundaries of the E53 Place at which the S19 Encounter Event took place, if that has been given. Note, that the encountered object may be larger and extend beyond the place of encounter, such as a corner of a building being excavated.
This property identifies the E92 Spacetime Volume that defines a S22 Segment of Matter. The spatial boundaries of the E92 Spacetime Volume are defined through S4 Observation or declaration while the temporal boundaries are confined by S18 Alteration events.
This property associates an instance of S21 Measurement with the instance of S15 Observable Entity to which it applied. An instance of S15 Observable Entity may be measured more than once. Material and immaterial things and processes may be measured, e.g. the number of words in a text, or the duration of an event.
This property describes that an instance of S10 Material Substantial was or is contained in another instance of S10 Material Substantial regardless of whether the identity of the involved instances is based on the persistence of the form of material or on material substance that may change form.
This property associates an instance of S24 Sample Splitting with the instance of S13 Sample which is the original sample being split.
This property allows an instance of E55 Type from a particular concept scheme or vocabulary to be declared as having an order relative to other instances of E55 Type in the same or other concept schemes, without necessarily having a specific value associated with either instance. This allows, for example, for an E55 Type instance representing the concept of "good" in a conservation report vocabulary to be greater than the E55 Type instance representing the concept of "average" in the same vocabulary. This property is transitive, and thus if "average" is greater than "poor", then "good" is also greater than "poor". In the domain of statistics, types that participate in this kind of relationship are called "Ordinal Variables"; as opposed to those without order which are called "Nominal Variables". This property allows for queries that select based on the relative position of participating E55 Types.
This property associates an instance of S24 Sample Splitting with the resulting instance of S13 Sample that has been removed from the original sample. The new sample (i.e. the sub-sample) maintains the characteristic qualities of the original.
This property associates an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of E94 Space Primitive which is the result of that determination. The instance of E94 Space Primitive approximates the place occupied by the entity whose position is being determined.
This property associates an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of E52 Time-Span for which the determination is valid according to the observer at the time of the observation. No inferences can be made in relation to the validity of the determination outside this time-span despite the fact that some entities are relatively stable and their positions may remain the same after the determination. The time-span of validity should fall within the overall time-span of the process of determination.
This property connects an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of S15 Observable Entity whose position is being determined.
This property associates an instance of E2 Temporal Entity with the instance of E52 Time-Span during which it was on-going. The associated instance of E52 Time-Span is understood as the real time-span during which the phenomena making up the temporal entity instance were active. More than one instance of E2 Temporal Entity may share a common instance of E52 Time-Span only if they come into being and end being due to identical declarations or events.
This property identifies the instance of E18 Physical Thing modified in an instance of E11 Modification.
This property associates an instance of E16 Measurement with the instance of E18 Physical Thing upon which it acted. The instance of E16 Measurement is specific to the measured object. An instance of E18 Physical Thing may be measured more than once with different results, constituting different instances of E16 Measurement.
This property records the dimension that was observed in an E16 Measurement Event.E54 Dimension can be any quantifiable aspect of E70 Thing. Weight, image colour depth and monetary value are dimensions in this sense. One measurement activity may determine more than one dimension of one object.Dimensions may be determined either by direct observation or using recorded evidence. In the latter case the measured Thing does not need to be present or extant.Even though knowledge of the value of a dimension requires measurement, the dimension may be an object of discourse prior to, or even without, any measurement being made.
This property associates an instance of E18 Physical Thing with another instance of Physical Thing that forms part of it. The spatial extent of the composing part is included in the spatial extent of the whole.Component elements, since they are themselves instances of E18 Physical Thing, may be further analysed into sub-components, thereby creating a hierarchy of part decomposition. An instance of E18 Physical Thing may be shared between multiple wholes, for example two buildings may share a common wall. This property does not specify when and for how long a component element resided in the respective whole. If a component is not part of a whole from the beginning of existence or until the end of existence of the whole, the classes E79 Part Addition and E90 Part Removal can be used to document when a component became part of a particular whole and/or when it stopped being a part of it. For the time-span of being part of the respective whole, the component is completely contained in the place the whole occupies.This property is intended to describe specific components that are individually documented, rather than general aspects. Overall descriptions of the structure of an instance of E18 Physical Thing are captured by the P3 has note property.The instances of E57 Material of which an instance of E18 Physical Thing is composed should be documented using P45 consists of (is incorporated in).This property is transitive and asymmetric.
This property identifies the instance of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing that came into existence as a result of the instance of E12 Production.The identity of an instance of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing is not defined by its matter, but by its existence as a subject of documentation. An E12 Production can result in the creation of multiple instances of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing.
This property identifies the instance of E18 Physical Thing that was diminished by an instance of E80 Part Removal.Although an instance of E80 Part removal activity normally concerns only one instance of E18 Physical Thing, it is possible to imagine circumstances under which more than one item might be diminished by a single instance of E80 Part Removal activity.
This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the instance of E1 CRM Entity about which it made an attribution. The instance of E1 CRM Entity plays the role of the domain of the attribution. The kind of attribution made should be documented using P177 assigned property of type (is type of property assigned).
This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the instance of E1 CRM Entity used in the attribution. The instance of E1 CRM Entity here plays the role of the range of the attribution.The kind of attribution made should be documented using P177 assigned property of type (is type of property assigned).
This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the type of property or relation that this assignment maintains to hold between the item to which it assigns an attribute and the attribute itself. Note that the properties defined by the CIDOC CRM also constitute instances of E55 Type themselves. The direction of the assigned property of type is understood to be from the attributed item (the range of property P140 assigned attribute to) to the attribute item (the range of the property P141 assigned). More than one property type may be assigned to hold between two items.A comprehensive explanation about refining CIDOC CRM concepts by E55 Type is given in the section “About Types” in the section on “Specific Modelling Constructs” of this document.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S1 Matter Removal with the instance of S10 Material Substantial that this activity diminished. Although an instance of S1 Matter Removal activity normally concerns only one item of S10 Material Substantial, it is possible to imagine circumstances under which more than one item might be diminished by a single Matter Removal activity. An instance S1 Matter Removal activity requires to diminish at least one item of S10 Material Substantial. This may be realized by any of the subproperties of O1 diminished. Therefore the instantiation of a particular subproperty of O1 diminished is not necessary.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S1 Matter Removal with the instance of S11 Amount of Matter that it has removed.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance S10 Material Substantial from which a sample was taken. In particular, it may be a feature or a fluid body from which a sample was removed.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance of E53 Place ("spot") at which this activity sampled. It identifies the narrowest relevant area on the material substantial from which the sample was taken. This may be known or given in absolute terms or relative to an instance of the material substantial from which it was taken. If samples are taken from more than one spot, the sample taking activity must be documented by separate instances for each spot. The property P7 took place at, inherited from E4 Period, describes the position of the area in which the sampling activity occurred; this latter comprises the space within which operators and instruments were contained during the activity, and the sample taking spot.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance of S13 Sample that was taken during the activity.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S12 Amount of Fluid with an instance of S14 Fluid Body which formed or forms part of it. It allows instances of S14 Fluid Body to be analyzed into elements of S12 Amount of Fluid.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S20 Rigid Physical Feature with an instance of S10 Material Substantial that it partially or completely confines. It describes cases in which rigid features such as stratigraphic layers, walls, dams, riverbeds, etc. form the boundaries of some item such as another stratigraphic layer or the waters of a river.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S4 Observation with an instance of S15 Observable Entity that was observed. Specifically it describes that a thing, a feature, a phenomenon or its reaction is observed by an activity of Observation.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S4 Observation with the instance of S9 Property Type for which the observation provides a value or evidence, such as “concentration of nitrate” observed in the water from a particular borehole. Encoding the observed property by type, observed entity and value (properties O9, O10, O16) is a method to circumscribe the reification of the observed property by the respective instance of S4 Observation. In an RDFS encoding, this circumscription can be transformed into an explicit representation of the observed property in terms of a formal ontology either by use of a reification construct or by the use of a Named Graph containing the observed property. The latter representation allows for more formal reasoning with the model, the former is more flexible about the kinds of observations.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S6 Data Evaluation with an instance of E54 Dimension that a data evaluation activity has assigned. In that case, dimensions may be determined by making evaluations on observational data based on mathematical inference rules and calculations.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S6 Data Evaluation with an instance of S15 Observable Entity for which a data evaluation activity provides a description. This description of any Observable Entity is based on data evaluations.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S15 Observable Entity with an instance of E54 Dimension that the observable entity has. It offers no information about how and when an E54 Dimension was established. In case the instance of S15 Observable Entity is more specifically an instance of E18 Physical Thing, using the property O12 has dimension (is dimension of) is equivalent to using the property P43 has dimension (is dimension of). In other words, using the one implies the other.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E5 Event that triggered another instance of E5 Event with the latter. It identifies the interaction between events: an event can activate (trigger) other events in a target system that is in a situation of sustained tension, such as a trap or an unstable mountain slope giving way to a land slide after a rain or earthquake. In that sense the triggering event is interpreted as a cause. However, the association of the two events is based on their temporal proximity, with the triggering event ending when the triggered event starts.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S10 Material Substantial with the instance of E53 Place that this substance occupied. It describes the space filled (occupied) by a physical matter. This property is the development of the shortcut expressed in the proposition of classification: “S20 Physical Feature” isA “E53 Place”. This property is equivalent to P156 occupies (is occupied by) with domain E18 Physical Thing and range E53 Place.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates a value assigned to an entity observed by S4 Observation.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S17 Physical Genesis event with an instance of E18 Physical Thing that the event generated.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S18 Alteration process with an instance of E18 Physical Thing which was altered by this activity.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S19 Encounter Event with an instance of E18 Physical Thing that was encountered or observed as present during the event.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates the activity of a Sample Taking with the type of the location part from which a sample was taken. It is a shortcut of the property O4 sampled at, and it is used as an alternative property, identifying features and material substantial as types of parts of sampling positions.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S19 Encounter Event with an instance of E53 Place at which the things, which were encountered, were observed to be present. This may be given in absolute terms or in terms relative to the observed thing. The associated place must be within the boundaries of the E53 Place at which the S19 Encounter Event took place, if that has been given. Note, that the encountered object may be larger and extend beyond the place of encounter, such as a corner of a building being excavated.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property identifies the E92 Spacetime Volume that defines a S22 Segment of Matter. The spatial boundaries of the E92 Spacetime Volume are defined through S4 Observation or declaration while the temporal boundaries are confined by S18 Alteration events.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S21 Measurement with the instance of S15 Observable Entity to which it applied. An instance of S15 Observable Entity may be measured more than once. Material and immaterial things and processes may be measured, e.g. the number of words in a text, or the duration of an event.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property describes that an instance of S10 Material Substantial was or is contained in another instance of S10 Material Substantial regardless of whether the identity of the involved instances is based on the persistence of the form of material or on material substance that may change form.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S24 Sample Splitting with the instance of S13 Sample which is the original sample being split.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property allows an instance of E55 Type from a particular concept scheme or vocabulary to be declared as having an order relative to other instances of E55 Type in the same or other concept schemes, without necessarily having a specific value associated with either instance. This allows, for example, for an E55 Type instance representing the concept of "good" in a conservation report vocabulary to be greater than the E55 Type instance representing the concept of "average" in the same vocabulary. This property is transitive, and thus if "average" is greater than "poor", then "good" is also greater than "poor". In the domain of statistics, types that participate in this kind of relationship are called "Ordinal Variables"; as opposed to those without order which are called "Nominal Variables". This property allows for queries that select based on the relative position of participating E55 Types.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S24 Sample Splitting with the resulting instance of S13 Sample that has been removed from the original sample. The new sample (i.e. the sub-sample) maintains the characteristic qualities of the original.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of E94 Space Primitive which is the result of that determination. The instance of E94 Space Primitive approximates the place occupied by the entity whose position is being determined.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of E52 Time-Span for which the determination is valid according to the observer at the time of the observation. No inferences can be made in relation to the validity of the determination outside this time-span despite the fact that some entities are relatively stable and their positions may remain the same after the determination. The time-span of validity should fall within the overall time-span of the process of determination.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property connects an instance of S23 Position Determination with the instance of S15 Observable Entity whose position is being determined.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E2 Temporal Entity with the instance of E52 Time-Span during which it was on-going. The associated instance of E52 Time-Span is understood as the real time-span during which the phenomena making up the temporal entity instance were active. More than one instance of E2 Temporal Entity may share a common instance of E52 Time-Span only if they come into being and end being due to identical declarations or events.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property identifies the instance of E18 Physical Thing modified in an instance of E11 Modification.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E16 Measurement with the instance of E18 Physical Thing upon which it acted. The instance of E16 Measurement is specific to the measured object. An instance of E18 Physical Thing may be measured more than once with different results, constituting different instances of E16 Measurement.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property records the dimension that was observed in an E16 Measurement Event.E54 Dimension can be any quantifiable aspect of E70 Thing. Weight, image colour depth and monetary value are dimensions in this sense. One measurement activity may determine more than one dimension of one object.Dimensions may be determined either by direct observation or using recorded evidence. In the latter case the measured Thing does not need to be present or extant.Even though knowledge of the value of a dimension requires measurement, the dimension may be an object of discourse prior to, or even without, any measurement being made.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E18 Physical Thing with another instance of Physical Thing that forms part of it. The spatial extent of the composing part is included in the spatial extent of the whole.Component elements, since they are themselves instances of E18 Physical Thing, may be further analysed into sub-components, thereby creating a hierarchy of part decomposition. An instance of E18 Physical Thing may be shared between multiple wholes, for example two buildings may share a common wall. This property does not specify when and for how long a component element resided in the respective whole. If a component is not part of a whole from the beginning of existence or until the end of existence of the whole, the classes E79 Part Addition and E90 Part Removal can be used to document when a component became part of a particular whole and/or when it stopped being a part of it. For the time-span of being part of the respective whole, the component is completely contained in the place the whole occupies.This property is intended to describe specific components that are individually documented, rather than general aspects. Overall descriptions of the structure of an instance of E18 Physical Thing are captured by the P3 has note property.The instances of E57 Material of which an instance of E18 Physical Thing is composed should be documented using P45 consists of (is incorporated in).This property is transitive and asymmetric.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property identifies the instance of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing that came into existence as a result of the instance of E12 Production.The identity of an instance of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing is not defined by its matter, but by its existence as a subject of documentation. An E12 Production can result in the creation of multiple instances of E24 Physical Human-Made Thing.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property identifies the instance of E18 Physical Thing that was diminished by an instance of E80 Part Removal.Although an instance of E80 Part removal activity normally concerns only one instance of E18 Physical Thing, it is possible to imagine circumstances under which more than one item might be diminished by a single instance of E80 Part Removal activity.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the instance of E1 CRM Entity about which it made an attribution. The instance of E1 CRM Entity plays the role of the domain of the attribution. The kind of attribution made should be documented using P177 assigned property of type (is type of property assigned).
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the instance of E1 CRM Entity used in the attribution. The instance of E1 CRM Entity here plays the role of the range of the attribution.The kind of attribution made should be documented using P177 assigned property of type (is type of property assigned).
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property associates an instance of E13 Attribute Assignment with the type of property or relation that this assignment maintains to hold between the item to which it assigns an attribute and the attribute itself. Note that the properties defined by the CIDOC CRM also constitute instances of E55 Type themselves. The direction of the assigned property of type is understood to be from the attributed item (the range of property P140 assigned attribute to) to the attribute item (the range of the property P141 assigned). More than one property type may be assigned to hold between two items.A comprehensive explanation about refining CIDOC CRM concepts by E55 Type is given in the section “About Types” in the section on “Specific Modelling Constructs” of this document.