Dear all,
Please find drafts for new scope notes below.
Best,
Øyvind
E4 Period
Subclass of: E2 Temporal Entity
E92 Spacetime Volume
Superclass of: E5 Event
Scope note: 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.
Typically 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.
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, the open spaces via which they 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, such as the air in a
meeting room transferring the voices. 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, instances of E4 Period may occupy each a limited number of
disjoint spacetime volumes, however there must not be a discontinuity in the
total timespan covered by these spacetime volumes. Nevertheless, an instance
of E4 Period must be contiguous in time. I.e., if it has ended in all areas, it
has ended as a whole, but it may involve one area after another, such as the
Polynesian migration, as long as it is ongoing at least in 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 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.
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.
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 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.
Examples:
● Jurassic
● European Bronze Age
● Italian Renaissance
● Thirty Years War
● Sturm und Drang
● Cubism
Properties:
P7 took place at (witnessed): E53 Place
P8 took place on or within (witnessed): E18 Physical Thing
P9 consists of (forms part of): E4 Period
E18 Physical Thing
Subclass of: E72 Legal Object
Superclass of: E19 Physical Object
E24 Physical Man-Made Thing
E26 Physical Feature
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 instances of E18 Physical Thing occupies not only a particular geometric
space, but in the course of its existence it performs 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 inner 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 them.
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 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)
Properties:
P44 has condition (is condition of): E3 Condition State
P45 consists of (is incorporated in): E57 Material
P46 is composed of (forms part of): E18 Physical Thing
P49 has former or current keeper (is former or current keeper of): E39 Actor
P50 has current keeper (is current keeper of): E39 Actor
P51 has former or current owner (is former or current owner of): E39 Actor
P52 has current owner (is current owner of): E39 Actor
P53 has former or current location (is former or current location of): E53 Place
P58 has section definition (defines section): E46 Section Definition
P59 has section (is located on or within): E53 Place
P128 carries (is carried by): E90 Symbolic Object
