Subclass of:

• crm:E92 Spacetime Volume
• crm:E72 Legal Object

Superclass of:

• crm:E19 Physical Object
• crm:E24 Physical Man-Made Thing
• crm:E26 Physical Feature
• frbroo:F7 Object

Scope note:

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.

Examples:

• the Cullinan Diamond (E19)
• the cave “Ideon Andron” in Crete (E26)
• the Mona Lisa (E22)

In First Order Logic:

• E18(x) ⊃ E92(x)
• E18(x) ⊃ E72(x)

Outgoing properties:

• crm:P52 has current owner (is current owner of) → crm:E39 Actor
• crm:P59 has section (is located on or within) → crm:E53 Place
• crm:P53 has former or current location (is former or current location of) → crm:E53 Place
• crm:P50 has current keeper (is current keeper of) → crm:E39 Actor
• crm-sup:P17 is composed of part of type (is type of part of) → crm:E55 Type
• crm:P58 has section definition (defines section) → crm:E46 Section Definition
• crm:P156 occupies (is occupied by) → crm:E53 Place
• crm:P49 has former or current keeper (is former or current keeper of) → crm:E39 Actor
• crm:P46 is composed of (forms part of) → crm:E18 Physical Thing
• crm:P128 carries (is carried by) → crm:E90 Symbolic Object
• crm:P45 consists of (is incorporated in) → crm:E57 Material
• crm:P44 has condition (is condition of) → crm:E3 Condition State
• crm:P51 has former or current owner (is former or current owner of) → crm:E39 Actor

Incoming properties:

• crm:E6 Destruction → crm:P13 destroyed (was destroyed by)
• crmdig:D2 Digitization Process → crmdig:L1 digitized (was digitized by)
• crm:E79 Part Addition → crm:P111 added (was added by)
• crm:E14 Condition Assessment → crm:P34 concerned (was assessed by)
• crm:E80 Part Removal → crm:P113 removed (was removed by)
• sdh:C27 Belonging to a collection → sdh:P55 is about (belongs to)
• sdh:C22 Physical Component → sdh:P27 belongs to (has component)
• frbroo:F29 Recording Event → frbroo:R65 recorded aspects of (had aspects recorded through)
• sdh:C19 Physical Thing Life → sdh:P26 is life of (has life)
• crm:E18 Physical Thing → crm:P46 is composed of (forms part of)
• sdh:C15 Geographical Location of a Physical Thing → sdh:P17 is location of (has location)
• crm:E4 Period → crm:P8 took place on or within (witnessed)
• crm:E8 Acquisition → crm:P24 transferred title of (changed ownership through)
• crm:E10 Transfer of Custody → crm:P30 transferred custody of (custody transferred through)
• crm:E53 Place → crm:P157 is at rest relative to (provides reference space for)
• sdh:C22 Physical Component → sdh:P28 has part (is part of)