Re: Martyn's point:
the "Early" in Early Medieval means something different to the "Early" in
Early Bronze Age,
but need this be a problem so long as accepted period terms are accompanied
by appropriate guidance on use?
Actually, IMHO this is a problem, as there should at least be an appearance
of consistency in the way we have chosen to apply the rules. What is also
at the root of Jason Siddall's problems is that the terminology has been
developed over time to serve the needs of academics and researchers, but
that now it needs to be accessible to a wider audience who may not have the
patience to trawl through the appropriate guidance before pushing the SEARCH
NOW button.
Even the more academically-minded users of say, an on-line database, would
be put off by a complex listing of overlapping terms with regional
variations.
Playing devil's advocate here... is there perhaps a case for developing a
set of different lists with different levels of complexity (regional or
otherwise), all of which could be mapped to each other. Then all you would
have to do is decide what level you were recording at, and state this in
your metadata.
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