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 identifier Classification by type, allowing further refinement of the specific subclass an instance belongs to Attachment of free text for the expression of anything not captured by formal properties With the exception of E59 Primitive Value, all other classes within the CRM are directly or indirectly specialisations of E1 CRM Entity.
This class comprises all phenomena, such as the instances of E4 Periods, E5 Events and states, 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 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, these are also called perdurants. This class is disjoint from E77 Persistent Item. This is an abstract class and 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 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 E67 Birth can be seen as both an atomic E5 Event and as an E4 Period that consists of multiple activities performed by multiple instances of E39 Actor. As the actual extent of an 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 timespan 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 CRMgeo (Doerr and Hiebel 2013). By virtue of this multiple inheritance we can discuss the physical extent of an 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 phenomena while a space-time 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. 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 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. Another specific case of an E4 Period is the set of activities and phenomena associated with a settlement, such as the populated period of Nineveh.
This class comprises changes of states in cultural, social or physical systems, regardless of scale, brought about by a series or group of coherent physical, cultural, technological or legal phenomena. Such changes of state will affect instances of E77 Persistent Item or its subclasses. The distinction between an E5 Event and an E4 Period is partly a question of the scale of observation. Viewed at a coarse level of detail, an E5 Event is an ‘instantaneous’ change of state. At a fine level, the E5 Event can be analysed into its component phenomena within a space and time frame, and as such can be seen as an E4 Period. The reverse is not necessarily the case: not all instances of E4 Period give rise to a noteworthy change of state.
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 the actions of making assertions about properties of an object or any relation between two items or concepts. This class allows the documentation of how the respective assignment came about, and whose opinion it was. All the attributes or properties assigned in such an action can also be seen as directly attached to the respective item or concept, possibly as a collection of contradictory values. All cases of properties in this model that are also described indirectly through an action are characterised as "short cuts" of this action. This redundant modelling of two alternative views is preferred because many implementations may have good reasons to model either the action or the short cut, and the relation between both alternatives can be captured by simple rules. In particular, the class describes the actions of people making propositions and statements during certain museum 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 if this information should be accessible by structured queries.
This class comprises all persistent physical items with a relatively stable form, man-made or natural. Depending on the existence of natural boundaries of such things, the 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, 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. Physical things consisting of aggregations of physically unconnected objects, such as a set of chessmen, occupy a number of individually contiguous spacetime volumes equal to the number of unconnected objects that constitute the set. We model E18 Physical Thing to be a subclass of E72 Legal Object and of E92 Spacetime volume. The latter is intended as a phenomenal spacetime volume as defined in CRMgeo (Doerr and Hiebel 2013). By virtue of this multiple inheritance we can discuss the physical extent of an E18 Physical Thing 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 E18 Physical Thing is matter while a spacetime volume is an aggregation of points in spacetime. However, the real spatiotemporal extent of an instance of E18 Physical Thing 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 E18 Physical Thing. Therefore this multiple inheritance is unambiguous and effective and furthermore corresponds to the intuitions of natural language. The CIDOC CRM is generally not concerned with amounts of matter in fluid or gaseous states.
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 concepts denoted by terms from thesauri and controlled vocabularies used to characterize and classify instances of CRM classes. Instances of E55 Type represent concepts in contrast to instances of E41 Appellation which are used to name instances of CRM classes. E55 Type is the CRM’s interface to domain specific ontologies and thesauri. These can be represented in the 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). Such hierarchies may be extended with additional properties.
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 man-made items that are documented as single units. These items are either intellectual products or man-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 E18 Physical Thing. In the case of instances of E28 Conceptual Object, however, the identity of the 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 CRM.
This class comprises items that have a persistent identity, sometimes known as “endurants” in philosophy. They can be repeatedly recognized within the duration of their existence by identity criteria rather than by continuity or observation. Persistent Items can be either physical entities, such as people, animals or things, or conceptual entities such as ideas, concepts, products of the imagination or common names. The criteria that determine the identity of an item are often difficult to establish -; the decision depends largely on the judgement of the observer. For example, a building is 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. Similarly, inanimate objects may be subject to exchange of parts and matter. The class E77 Persistent Item does not take any position about the nature of the applicable identity criteria and if actual knowledge about identity of an instance of this class exists. There may be cases, where the identity of an E77 Persistent Item is not decidable by a certain state of knowledge.The main classes of objects that fall outside the scope the E77 Persistent Item class are temporal objects such as periods, events and acts, and descriptive properties.
This class comprises 4 dimensional point sets (volumes) in physical spacetime regardless its true geometric form. 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, Place and Timespan 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 a spacetime volume is trivially its projection on time.
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 the activity of gaining scientific knowledge about particular states of physical reality gained by empirical evidence, experiments and by 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, either directly by human sensory impression, or enhanced with tools and measurement devices. 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. Manual recordings may serve as additional evidence. Measurements and witnessing of events are special cases of observations. Observations result in a belief about certain propositions. In this model, the degree of confidence in the observed properties is regarded to be “true” per default, but could be described differently by adding a property P3 has note to an instance of S4 Observation, or by reification of the property O16 observed value. 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. Observations represent the transition between reality and propositions in the form of instances of a formal ontology, and can be subject to data evaluation from this point on.
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.
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 from 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 instances of E2 Temporal Entity or E77 Persistent Item, i.e. items or phenomena that can be observed, either directly by human sensory impression, or enhanced with tools and measurement devices, such as physical things, their behavior, states and interactions or events. Conceptual objects can be present in events by their carriers such as books, digital media, or even human memory. By virtue of this presence, properties 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 give credit to the fact that frequently, the actually observed carriers of conceptual objects are not explicitly identified in documentation, i.e., the actual carrier is assumed having existed but is unknown as an individual.
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 E18 Physical Thing. 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”).
This class comprises any coherent set of systematic research activities aimed at recording the presence and properties of material archaeological remains present at the earth’s surface, by means of direct observation in the field. Archaeological surveys are characterised by coherence in time (they consist of a single campaign or season of field research), aims and goals (as defined by the Institution carrying it out), methods, and geographic scope (study area). For example, a University may run a 4-year project to conduct systematic intensive surveys in the hinterland of a specific Roman town, aiming to record all activities relating to agricultural land use. Each field season within such a project forms one instance of U1 Archaeological Survey An archaeological survey (U1) consists of multiple consecutive investigations of land plots, instances ofU4 Surface Survey Units, involving the making of field observations, the collection of archaeological materials, and/or the subsequent processing of those materials, according to a standard set of protocols. While the particular circumstances of the start and end of an archaeological survey vary by case, an instance can typically be said to have come into existence upon the start of the first survey activity and covers the immediate activities associated with the survey such as fieldwalking and preliminary material studies. It ends upon the end of the last survey activity. All publication activities and scientific analyses that may be involved to better understand the results of the survey activities are a part of the overall Project (PE35) constituted for specific research objectives, and not part of the archaeological survey. An instance of PE35 can consist of one or multiple instances of U1 Archaeological Survey but may also involve instances of A9 Archaeological Excavation as well as other activities.
This class comprises the collection of archaeologically relevant objects from a land plot. In the context of systematic survey practices, instances of Survey Collection Activity take place at an U4 Surface Survey Unit during and as a part of an U3 Survey Process Unit, usually but not necessarily following an established protocol. This involves the collection of human-made objects such as pottery, metal objects, lithics, etc. but can also include natural objects such as unworked stones without any specific analytical value that are later discovered to be irrelevant and typically discarded from the collection. An instance of Survey Collection Activity comes into existence upon the intentional removal of parts of the Survey Surface Unit observable on the ground. The Survey Collection Activity ends when the last artefact or a physical object from the specific Survey Surface Unit or Site has been picked up from the ground, recorded, and typically inserted into a container with the rest of the finds from the same unit or site.
This class comprises acts of investigation, as part of an archaeological survey, that observe a single, discrete land plot during a single continuous time period (or ‘visit’), according to an established protocol. This may include the recording of Survey Surface Unit (U4) properties and physical features and the making of observations by field walkers. It does not inherently include the collection of artefacts. In case an instance of U3 Survey Process Unit entails such activities, these should be modelled with Survey Collection Activity (U2) and related to the overall U3 Survey Process Unit as follows: U4 Survey Surface Unit -> UP2i was surveyed by -> U3 Survey Process Unit -> P9 consists of -> U2 Survey Collection Activity -> UP3 collected -> U6 Material Sample An instance of Survey Process Unit (U3) comes into existence when individuals enter into the act of investigating a particular defined Survey Surface Unit (U4) following the assigned plan. The instance of survey process unit is on-going so long as the investigation continues at the specified survey surface unit. The activity comes to an end when the investigation has closed in accordance with the plan or is interrupted by any event that impedes its completion (e.g.: weather conditions, conflict with land owners, health conditions, etc.)
This class comprises single land plots with artificially or physically defined boundaries that are the object of investigation in an Archaeological Survey (U1). Plots can be defined by imposing a geographical grid that ignores the landscape, or by following existing land use or land cover; their geometry can be point-, line, or polygon-based depending on the survey design. Typical nouns used to describe this class are tracts, units, walker lines. The substance of a Survey Surface Unit is a material physical feature on the Earth with a specified boundary. Instances of Survey Surface Unit come into existence [see note below] through their designation in an official survey surface registration system. They continue to exist so long as the material physical feature designated continues to exist in substantially the same place and form and the boundary indicators for these plots can be recalled through some medium (physical, digital, memory). A Survey Surface Unit ceases to exist when it is sufficiently degraded so that it no longer bears a material or spatial continuity with its original designation or if the designating information is lost. For example, when it has been substantially altered or removed by fluvial erosion, quarrying, etc. or there remain no records that allow the re-identification of the land plots on the surface of the earth. Survey Surface Units are typically designed to help the identification of archaeological sites and/or the mapping of the archaeological landscape as a continuum. A note concerning the relation between a site, in the colloquial sense, an instance of survey surface unit U4, and the CRM class E27 Site: What archaeologists regard as a ‘site’ is modelled as a type of E27 Site. An E27 Site as a physical feature exists objectively in the world with or without our knowledge of it, but comes to be declared an ‘archaeological site’ as a result of archaeological surveys or similar practices. This would typically be documented through the p2 has type E55 relation using a vocabulary term for archaeological site. One ‘site’ may be covered by and consist of one or many instances of U4 Survey Surface Units and one instance of U4 Survey Surface Unit can contain one or many archaeological sites. Once declared as archaeological, a site may itself be considered also to be an U4 and thus be visited directly via a Survey Process Unit. Note: Of course being physical objects they preexist their being named or recognized by human beings. Their existence in a physical sense as a certain conglomeration of matter in space and time is not dependent on the existence of human beings. But once named and defined by a human group the physical substance now supports an additional identity that it did not have before which nonetheless has physically objective and findable properties. It is in this way that the object qua (as) survey unit comes to be although regarding its substance as matter that matter was already in existence yet without the attribution of an identity relative to a survey.
This class comprises digital registration activities of properties of physical things using specialised equipment designed to capture physical signals from objects using sensors and record them as usable / interpretable digital outputs with specific set parameters, which typically affect the output and the interpretation of the results of the digital recording. The objects of registration / investigation typically include anthropogenic or natural features of the earth’s surface. An instance of digital registration involves the interaction of a sensor in the digital device, a physical thing measured and a digital object output which encodes certain properties of that object at the time of registration. Digital Process Units should be used to record digital measurement activities which have quantifiable outputs from mechanical inputs of signals which are carried out towards the end of having a scientifically evaluatable measurement output. Therefore, someone sketching an object, typing an observation in a note on a tablet etc ARE NOT instance of Digital Process Unit because they do not use sensors from a machine that automatically capture signals from a physical reality and transfer them into a digital form that can be used to interpret that reality based on knowledge of interpretation of the relevant signal and the physics etc. that are relevant for interpreting it. An instance of digital process unit comes into existence on the commencement of the registration procedure and is on-going so long as the operators were engaged in the purposeful action to produce a particular dataset. The instance of digital process unit ends upon successful execution of the registration process or abnormally if the registration is fatally interrupted by an incidental condition or the general abandonment of the process by the actors engaged in the registration. Typical kinds of digital process unit include LIDAR scanning, photogrammetry, spatial recording via Total Station or drone inter alia.
This class comprises one or more archaeologically relevant objects, such as fragments of pottery, lithics, etcetera, typically collected from a Survey Surface Unit (U4) in an instance of Survey Collection Activity (U2). The material sample is considered potentially indicative of aspects of the identified material substantial from which they have been removed, providing information regarding its past use, material makeup etc. The substance of the material sample is one or more material objects that have a designated provenience from a particular physical area. Instances of U6 Material Sample come into being upon the successful completion of a U2 Survey Collection Activity, and may later be differentiated into notional or physical collections of objects on the basis of further classification activities. For example, the material sample originating in a particular U2 Survey Collection Activity can be classified into material classes, ware types, fabric group etcetera. These can, but do not necessarily have to be physically separated and stored seperately from each other. Instance of U6 Material Sample cease to exist when they are intentionally discarded or when it is no longer possible to reconstitute them from their constituent parts (e.g., when objects are removed from their container without retaining their provenience).
This class comprises types of groupings of pottery as established by appropriate experts on the basis of visual macro- and/or microscopic inspection of clay matrices and inclusions. Fabric group types are declared in order to reflect characteristics of the raw materials used as well as the manufacturing procedures adopted for the creation of groups of pottery materials. A pottery fabric type can therefore potentially be tied to specific production locations. Actual instances of clay matrices used to establish the declaration of an instance of U7 Fabric may be modified by post-depositional processes, which can introduce uncertainty into the type assignment of an instance of this class to a particular object. The substance of an instance of U7 Fabric is a conceptual classification created for scientific analysis. An instance of Fabric comes into being upon its declaration and continues to exist thereafter even if disproven or superseded, so long as it remains an object of discourse in scientific literature.
This class comprises types of groupings of objects according to their presumed function as determined by appropriate experts on the basis of that group of objects’ shape, fabric and other properties. Instance of U8 Function typologic groupings are often arranged hierarchically organizing, for example, 'baking trays' and 'cooking pots' under 'kitchen ware'. An individual real world object may have multiple functions; a particular amphora, for example, may be used for transportation and for storage. Following transformation, it may have had secondary functions: for example, a storage vessel sherd may be re-used as an ostrakon. The substance of an instance of U8 Function is a conceptual classification created for scientific analysis. An instance of U8 Function comes into being upon its declaration and continues to exist thereafter even if disproven or superseded, so long as it remains an object of discourse in scientific literature.
This class comprises types of groupings of ceramic objects (pottery, terracottas and building materials) organized according to their visual characteristics as determined by appropriate experts on the basis of that group of objects’ combined compositional characteristics (U7 fabric) and manufacturing techniques (slip, finish, use of potter’s wheel). In addition, instances of U9 Ware are often characterised by a specific suite of U10 shapes. Ware groupings are often specified hierarchically (e.g, African Red Slip Ware may be subdivided into ware groups A, B, C and D). The classification of an individual real world object according to an instance of U9 Ware depends to varying degrees on different aspects of that object; for example, “black gloss ware” is attributed solely on the basis of a real world object's dark slipped surface, whereas “impasto chiaro sabbioso” is attributed to an object on the basis of its typical colour and inclusions (e.g. its fabric). The substance of an instance of Ware is a conceptual classification created for scientific analysis. An instance of U9 Ware comes into being upon its declaration and continues to exist thereafter even if disproven or superseded, so long as it remains an object of discourse in scientific literature.
This class comprises types of groupings of specific ceramic forms that can be are declared by appropriate experts in order to categorise individual objects, fragmented or not. An instance of U10 Shape is declared based on the morphological characteristics (curvature, thickness, position and type of decoration) of an ideal object deduced either from many typical real world objects or reconstructed from knowledge of vessel parts when intact exemplars do not exist or are insufficient to ground the positing of an instance of U10 Shape. Shape groupings are often arranged hierarchically, for example grouping ‘one-handled cups’ and ‘large cups’ can be declared under 'cups', or 'cups' and 'bowls' under open vessels. Different shapes are more or less readily identified. For example, in some cases simple wall fragments can be assigned the shape ‘dolium’ based on their thickness, while in other cases rim or base fragments of a very specific shape can potentially belong to different shapes (e.g., a jug or jar, cup or bowl). The substance of an instance of U10 Shape is a conceptual classification created for scientific analysis. An instance of Shape comes into being upon its declaration and continues to exist thereafter even if disproven or superseded, so long as it remains an object of discourse in scientific literature.
This class comprises internationally agreed types of vessel parts that can are declared in the abstract and can be assigned by appropriate experts to individual objects, fragmented or not, in order to identify their parthood status within the context of an overall vessel. The attribution of an instance of U11 Vessel Part to an individual real world object is based on the morphological characteristics (curvature, thickness, surface finish) of that object and may aid in the identification of an overall vessel shape (U10). Vessel part groupings are typically organized hierarchically, for example grouping ‘ring bases’ and ‘flat bases’ under 'bases'. The substance of an instance of Vessel Part is a conceptual classification created for scientific analysis. An instance of U11 Shape comes into being upon its declaration and continues to exist thereafter even if disproven or superseded, so long as it remains an object of discourse in scientific literature.
This property associates an instance of S2 Sample Taking with the instance of S13 Sample that was removed during this activity. The sample is identified by a unique identifier.
This property associates an instance of S19 Encounter Event with an instance of E18 Physical Thing that has been found.
This property describes the effects of some classified category of affective parameter, documented as an instance of E55, on an instance of S4 Observation. It describes how different parameters (such as vegetation cover, sunlight, ..) affect the quality of different kinds of observations made during an instance of S4 Observation.
This property relates an instance of U3 Survey Process Unit to a particular instance of U4 Survey Surface Unit which is both its place and object of activity. A single location / U4 Survey Surface Unit may be surveyed by multiple different U3 Survey Process Units.
This property relates an instance of U2 Survey Collection Activity to the U6 Material Sample Unit that it collected. It describes the act of collecting a set of objects from a Surface Survey Unit according to a given procedure, as part of a Survey Process Unit.
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 removed during this activity. The sample is identified by a unique identifier.
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 has been found.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property describes the effects of some classified category of affective parameter, documented as an instance of E55, on an instance of S4 Observation. It describes how different parameters (such as vegetation cover, sunlight, ..) affect the quality of different kinds of observations made during an instance of S4 Observation.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property relates an instance of U3 Survey Process Unit to a particular instance of U4 Survey Surface Unit which is both its place and object of activity. A single location / U4 Survey Surface Unit may be surveyed by multiple different U3 Survey Process Units.
This property is the inverse of the forward property described in the scope note that follows. This property relates an instance of U2 Survey Collection Activity to the U6 Material Sample Unit that it collected. It describes the act of collecting a set of objects from a Surface Survey Unit according to a given procedure, as part of a Survey Process Unit.