Hi everyone,
From a CIDOC CRM perspective, periods are always spatiotemporal. This includes things like the American
Civil War (restricted to USA), WWI, WWII (restricted to earth). It means however, that all periods spread
out spatially over time. So, WWII has different dates for Japan, USA and Germany. In the CIDOC group, we could
not identify any other culturally relevant definition for periods. E.g. 12th century has no common meaning for
the Americas and Europe. In the CIDOC CRM, we regard terms like 18th century as time-spans, distinct from periods.
There is really no need to fill a thesaurus with time-spans. They can be created automatically, there are several
implementations around doing things like "begin of 18th century". Even though widely used, one can ask if there is
any cultural change implied by the begin or end of a Christian century.
Here the definitions we make in the CRM:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
E4 Period
Belongs to: Period Type
Subclass of: Temporal Entity
Superclass of: Event
Scope note: A period is characterized by a coherent set of phenomena and or manifestations (explicitly intended or not), which are assumed to
have taken place over a certain space and time.
Examples: Glacial period, bronze period, Ming Dynasty, Impressionism, Neolithic Period, Mc Carthy Era, The Sixties, Niniveh, 'Sturm und Drang'.
There are different opinions as to whether a 'style' is defined by physical features or by the historical context.
Properties:
is identified by (identifies): Appellation
has type (is type of): Type
took place at (witnessed): Place
property note: this is the superproperty of "moved to", "moved from".
took place on or within (witnessed): Physical Object
property note: It is short cut of the "Section Definition"
has time-span (is time-span of): Time-Span
consists of (forms part of): Period
falls within (contains): Period
has note: String
(has type : Type)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and Time-Span:
E52 Time-Span
Belongs to: Time Type
Subclass of: CRM Entity
Scope note: A determination of a range of dates or duration without any further connotations, to be used to confine periods, events, and any
other phenomena valid for a certain time. A time appellation is a verbal form which refers to a time-span. The time-span itself is a temporal
extent in the sense of Galilean physics. Different time-appellations may express the same time-span.
Examples : from 12-17-1993 to 12-8-1996, 14h30 - 16h22 4th July 1945, 9.30 am 1.1.1999 to 2.OO pm 1.1.1999, Duration of the Ming Dynasty.
Properties:
is identified by (identifies): Time Appellation
property note: this is the subproperty of "E1CRM Entity.(is identified by)".
is identified by (identifies): Appellation
has type (is type of): Type
begins at qualify: String
ends at qualify: String
at least covering: Time Primitive
property note : the inner bound, can be omitted
at most within: Time Primitive
property note : the outer bound (ensuring recall)
had at least duration: Dimension
had at most duration: Dimension
consists of (forms part of): Time-Span
falls within (contains): Time-Span
has note: String
(has type : Type)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more details see:
http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/crm_documents.html,
http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/docs/cidoc_crm_version_3.2.1.rtf
As the CIDOC CRM is a proposed ISO standard, we are most interested in a wide consensus about
these definitions. I regard a clear intellectual distinction of cultural phenomena from the
physical measure like time and coordinates as crucial. Your opinion is most appreciated.
best regards,
Martin Doerr
David Evans wrote:
>
> Surely the date ranges are parameters rather than true dates, otherwise different parts of the country (UK) would, for example, have different start date for Roman (Sussex AD 37!). Certainly the opportunity to use century dates (starting with 01) is an excellent idea although I would not like to see post medieval disappear entirely. The later part of the PM period is difficult to justify, but Victorian is not a good replacement. I shall suggest pb for Post (Mark) Brunel. I would also find Civil War WWI WWII useful additions
>
> Thank you
> David Evans
> Environment and Conservation
>
> >>> [log in to unmask] 09/04/2002 11:27:23 >>>
> Hi everyone ......
>
> i have recently been asked this question .. i suggest we really need to
> move along on this ....and provide some solutions at present the periods
> are pretty shabby ...
> .................................................................................................................
> Jason Siddall
> NTSMR Officer
>
> Please ask FISH about periods - we are unhappy about the 'modern'
> period ending in 2050 - not sensible! Also, why does 'post-medieval' end
> at 1900 and 'modern' not begin until 1958 - less sensible still...
>
> Can we please move away from 'post-medieval' to century dates? I want
> to be able to use terms such as '18th century' or '20th century', etc.
>
> Many thanks
>
> Rob Woodside
> NT Archaeological Adviser
>
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