1.1.3.4. Vocabularies¶

Some parts of a WHG attestation take a value from a fixed list rather than free text. This page lists the lists WHG uses. They are PLATO’s, at PLATO 0.7.1 (doi:10.5281/zenodo.23060220; all versions: doi:10.5281/zenodo.21688313): the enumerations in its JSON schema and the SKOS concept schemes in its ontology, with the same values and the same identifiers. PLATO’s own Vocabularies page is generated from the ontology and is the authority where this page and it ever differ. How the values are used in attestations is described in Attestations and Relations.

The lists come in three kinds, and a value is written differently in each:

Kind	Written as	Open?	Examples on this page
Schema enumeration	A plain string, exactly as listed	Closed: other values fail validation	Temporal precision, spatial precision, identity type, citation function, authority type, gazetteer status
Concept scheme	The concept’s full IRI, `https://w3id.org/plato#` followed by its name	Open: a project may declare its own concepts	Meta types, source stance, geometry role, form status, kinds of spatial entity
Open string list	A plain string	Open, provided a project documents what it adds	Name types

Relation types are written in the same way (a full IRI, and open to a project’s own), but they are RelationType Authorities, not concepts in a scheme; a project declares its own in relationTypes.

In PLATO’s spreadsheet tables a concept is written by its short name (Retracts), and the tables supply the prefix; in JSON and RDF it is always the full IRI.

1.1.3.4.1. Name types¶

A Name’s nameType (plato:name_type) says what the name denotes. It is an array, since one name can serve more than one purpose (a name that is both a toponym and an ethnonym). PLATO’s starter values:

`nameType`	The name of
`toponym`	a place
`chrononym`	a period or era
`ethnonym`	a people or ethnic group
`demonym`	the inhabitants of a place
`odonym`	a street or road
`hydronym`	a body of water

The list is open: a project may add others (PLATO mentions oronym and hagionym) provided it documents them in its Gazetteer’s metadata. What kind of place a name belongs to (a river, a mountain, a shrine) is otherwise a matter for the place’s types, not the name’s. WHG uses PLATO’s six name types and adds none of its own.

A name type classifies the referent, not the status of the form. Whether a string is a reading from the source, an editor’s headword or a search form is the attestation’s formStatus (plato:form_status), because the same string can have a different status in different attestations:

`formStatus`	Meaning (PLATO)
`Attested`	A form read in the cited source. The default, usually omitted.
`Headword`	The editorial or preferred form under which the cited authority files the entry. A scholarly decision rather than a reading.
`Preferred`	The form the contributing project prefers for display and search: a project decision, so the cited source may show a different form.
`Normalised`	A form derived from an attested one for matching or search, attested by no source and carrying no independent evidential value.
`Reconstructed`	A form inferred but not attested; the philologists’ asterisked form.

Words such as “exonym”, “endonym”, “variant”, “historical” or “colloquial” are not name types in PLATO. Who used a name is given by its language and its sources, and when it was used by the attestation’s timespans.

1.1.3.4.2. Place types¶

What kind of place a SpatialEntity is, is a Type attestation (attests_type, JSON types). A Type stands for one dataset’s use of a concept:

JSON key	PLATO property	Use
`identifier`	`type_identifier`	The concept’s full IRI in a published vocabulary. Strongly encouraged, not required.
`label`	`type_label`	A human-readable label. Required.
`sourceLabel`	`source_label`	The category as the source gives it, before it was mapped.
`scheme`	`skos:inScheme`	The vocabulary’s IRI, where the identifier does not already name it.
`schemeVersion`	`scheme_version`	The version of the vocabulary used, where its terms change meaning between versions.
`@id`		The dataset’s own IRI for this usage, if it wants to refer to it again. Usually omitted.

Two rules matter:

A Type’s @id is never the concept’s IRI. The concept’s IRI goes in identifier. Were it the @id, every dataset’s labels, source wording and scheme versions would pile up on the one shared concept in any combined graph. A Type’s @id is the dataset’s own, or it is left out.
Identifiers are full IRIs, never bare codes. PPL, Q515 or stream means something only to someone who already knows the vocabulary. A source’s own category that no vocabulary holds is recorded as a label and sourceLabel with no identifier, not as a code made up for it.

Vocabulary	Form of the identifier	Example
Getty AAT (WHG’s main type vocabulary)	`http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/<id>`	`http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300008347` (inhabited place)
Wikidata	`http://www.wikidata.org/entity/<Q-id>`	`http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q515` (city)
GeoNames feature code	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#<class>.<code>`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#P.PPL` (populated place)
OpenStreetMap tag	`https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:<key>=<value>`, keeping the key	`https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:waterway=stream`

An OpenStreetMap tag’s IRI keeps its key because the value alone is ambiguous. scheme and schemeVersion are for vocabularies whose identifiers do not name them (Köppen climate codes, ecoregion codes, a project’s own list), or whose terms change meaning from one version to the next; an AAT, Wikidata, GeoNames or OpenStreetMap IRI already names its vocabulary.

Note

WHG is migrating to full IRIs. Its current index stores many type identifiers as bare codes (a GeoNames feature code, an OpenStreetMap value without its key); see WHG place#305. Contributions to WHG v4 should give full IRIs.

From PLATO’s customs-accounts example (attestation-centric-customs.json), two AAT types on one attestation about Bristol:

"types": [
  { "identifier": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300008347", "label": "inhabited place" },
  { "identifier": "http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300000745", "label": "port" }
]

1.1.3.4.2.1. GeoNames feature classes¶

GeoNames records come into WHG with a feature class and a feature code. As type identifiers they are IRIs in the GeoNames ontology: the class alone (https://www.geonames.org/ontology#P) or the class and code (https://www.geonames.org/ontology#P.PPL), as GeoNames’ own RDF gives them. The full list of codes is at geonames.org.

Class	IRI	Covers
`A`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#A`	Countries, states, regions and other administrative divisions
`H`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#H`	Streams, lakes and other water features
`L`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#L`	Parks, areas and regions
`P`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#P`	Cities, towns, villages and other populated places
`R`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#R`	Roads and railways
`S`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#S`	Spots, buildings and sites
`T`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#T`	Mountains, hills, rocks and other relief features
`U`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#U`	Undersea features
`V`	`https://www.geonames.org/ontology#V`	Forests, heaths and other vegetation

1.1.3.4.2.2. Kinds of spatial entity¶

Four kinds of SpatialEntity change how a platform treats them: WHG draws a route from its ordered members, works out an itinerary’s span, and may leave segments out of lists of places. PLATO declares them as concepts in plato:EntityKindScheme. They are not Types themselves: a Type attestation names one in its identifier, like any other vocabulary concept.

Concept	IRI	Definition (PLATO)
route	`https://w3id.org/plato#TypeRoute`	An ordered set of places making a way: a road, a sea lane, a pilgrimage route. Its timespan, if any, is when it was in use, not when anyone travelled it.
itinerary	`https://w3id.org/plato#TypeItinerary`	A journey made through places in order, each stop with its own timespan: a traveller’s tour, a royal progress, a ship’s voyage. Not `plato:Itinerary`, which is a geometry role (a line tracing a route or journey).
network	`https://w3id.org/plato#TypeNetwork`	A set of places and the connections between them, in no single order: a river system, a canal network, a correspondence network.
segment	`https://w3id.org/plato#TypeSegment`	A physical link with an existence of its own: a leg of a route between two stations, a reach of a river between confluences. Platforms may leave segments out of lists and searches of places.

From PLATO’s King John example (place-centric-king-john.json), the Type on the itinerary itself:

"types": [
  {
    "identifier": "https://w3id.org/plato#TypeItinerary",
    "label": "itinerary"
  }
]

Gazetteers, gazetteer groups and periods are not SpatialEntities, and are not typed this way. A Gazetteer is a dcat:Dataset, a gazetteer group is a plato:GazetteerGroup, and a period is an Authority (plato:Period). See Routes, Itineraries, Networks, Groups and Periods.

1.1.3.4.3. Temporal precision¶

A Timespan gives its bounds as four dates (startEarliest, startLatest, endEarliest, endLatest), each an ISO 8601 date or a signed year of at least four digits (-0500 for 500 BCE). How finely each end is known is startPrecision and endPrecision, from this schema enumeration:

Value	The bound is given to the
`day`	day
`month`	month
`year`	year
`decade`	decade
`century`	century
`era`	era
`geological_period`	geological period

Precision is resolution, not confidence: how sure anyone is of the date is certainty. Related keys:

precisionValue: a numeric precision, in years.
openStart, openEnd: the start or end is deliberately left open, not merely unknown.
sourceLabel: the date exactly as the source writes it (“about 1841”, “a. 1300”).
label: a named period (“Byzantine period”); periodoUri: the PeriodO period it corresponds to.
edtfString: the date in Extended Date/Time Format; duration: a length the source states, as an xsd:duration (P42D).

There is no “circa” or “exact” value. An approximate date is expressed by the distance between its earliest and latest bounds; an exact one has equal bounds.

1.1.3.4.4. Spatial precision and geometry roles¶

A Geometry’s spatialPrecision is an array (a heterogeneous geometry may need more than one value), from this schema enumeration:

Value	Meaning (PLATO)
`exact`	Surveyed or GPS.
`approximate`	Estimated from maps or descriptions.
`uncertain`	Multiple possible locations.
`historical_approximate`	Based on historical sources with inherent imprecision.

precisionKm, also an array, is an uncertainty radius in kilometres.

What a geometry depicts is a separate question, answered by its role (plato:geometry_role), a concept in PLATO’s geometry-role scheme:

Role	IRI	Meaning (PLATO)
extent	`https://w3id.org/plato#Extent`	The built or bounded extent of the SpatialEntity.
feature point	`https://w3id.org/plato#FeaturePoint`	The location of a specific central feature, such as a market place or a church.
representative point	`https://w3id.org/plato#RepresentativePoint`	A proxy point standing in for the whole SpatialEntity, for indexing and display; it need not depict any feature of it.
label anchor	`https://w3id.org/plato#LabelAnchor`	The anchor point of a map label.
itinerary	`https://w3id.org/plato#Itinerary`	A line tracing a route or journey.

A point that stands for a region is a RepresentativePoint, not a precision. A geometry that software worked out from others (a route’s line, a network’s hull) is marked computed, not given a precision.

1.1.3.4.4.1. Relative position¶

A name, geometry, timespan or type may be given relative to an anchor (qualification.relativeTo), with a bearing, a distance in metres, or a relativeQualifier from PLATO’s scheme:

Qualifier	IRI	Meaning (PLATO)
near	`https://w3id.org/plato#Near`	Close to the anchor, without a stated bearing or distance.
within	`https://w3id.org/plato#Within`	Inside the anchor.
beyond	`https://w3id.org/plato#Beyond`	On the far side of the anchor from the point of view of the source.
upstream of	`https://w3id.org/plato#UpstreamOf`	Upstream of the anchor along a watercourse.
between	`https://w3id.org/plato#BetweenXAndY`	Between the anchor and a second anchor.
during reign of	`https://w3id.org/plato#DuringReignOf`	A timespan defined by the reign or tenure of the anchor.
variant of	`https://w3id.org/plato#VariantOf`	A name defined as a variant of the anchor name.

1.1.3.4.5. Certainty, fuzziness and the source’s stance¶

Certainty is the contributor’s confidence, from 0.0 (completely uncertain) to 1.0 (completely certain): certainty and certaintyNote on an attestation, and qualification.certainty on a single name, geometry, timespan, type or PropertyValue. Better evidence could raise it. PLATO sets no bands on the scale; a certaintyNote says what the number rests on. Nor does WHG: it uses PLATO’s certainty and certaintyLevel as they are, with no numeric bands or certainty levels of its own.

Where certainty is stated in words, it is a certainty level (certaintyLevel), never an invented number. PLATO declares the three levels of Linked Places Format; a project may declare its own.

Level	IRI	Meaning (PLATO)
certain	`https://w3id.org/plato#Certain`	The source, or the contributor, has no doubt of it.
less certain	`https://w3id.org/plato#LessCertain`	Probable but not certain.
uncertain	`https://w3id.org/plato#Uncertain`	Doubtful: possible, but not established.

Fuzziness (qualification.fuzziness, 0.0 crisp to 1.0 maximally vague, with a fuzzinessNote) is a property of the thing, not of anyone’s knowledge of it: a region never formally bounded is fuzzy however good the evidence.

Source stance (sourceStance) is how firmly the source itself asserts what an attestation records. It is the source’s, not the contributor’s.

Stance	IRI	Meaning (PLATO)
asserted	`https://w3id.org/plato#StanceAsserted`	The source states it as so, on its own account. The default, usually omitted.
reported	`https://w3id.org/plato#StanceReported`	The source passes it on without vouching for it: “it is said”.
tentative	`https://w3id.org/plato#StanceTentative`	The source states it, but with a hedge: “as it seems”.
doubted	`https://w3id.org/plato#StanceDoubted`	The source raises it and declines to settle it. Not a denial, which is `negated`.

1.1.3.4.5.1. Reading the source¶

Key	Values (IRIs `https://w3id.org/plato#…`)	Use
`qualification.transcriptionAccuracy`	`TranscriptionAccurate`, `TranscriptionInaccurate`, `TranscriptionFalse` (a ghost form not in the source)	How faithfully a transcription renders the source.
`qualification.transcriptionCompleteness`	`TranscriptionComplete`, `TranscriptionReconstructable`, `TranscriptionNonReconstructable`	Whether a transcribed value is whole, and if not, whether the lost part can be supplied.
`occurrenceContext`	`Direct` (the default, usually omitted), `InPersonalName`, `InFieldName`	The capacity in which a form occurs in its source.
citation `attributionStatus`	`AttributionStated` (the default, usually omitted), `AttributionInferred`	Whether the source is named where the form occurs, or was resolved by an editor from “ibidem”.

1.1.3.4.6. Kinds of authority¶

A source object’s authorityType says which kind of Authority it is. It is a schema enumeration, and defaults to source for JSON readers (a document meant for RDF should state it):

`authorityType`	PLATO class	What it is
`source`	`plato:Source`	A citable document: a charter, a map, a survey, an edition.
`dataset`	`plato:Dataset`	A dataset cited as a whole, such as another gazetteer.
`period`	`plato:Period`	A named historical period.
`relationType`	`plato:RelationType`	A kind of relation.
`certaintyLevel`	`plato:CertaintyLevel`	A level of certainty stated in words.

PLATO has no list of source genres (inscription, manuscript, map). What a source is, is said by its title, citation and uri, and its date by its own timespan.

1.1.3.4.7. Citation functions¶

A citation’s citationFunction says why the source is cited. It is a property of CiTO, the Citation Typing Ontology (version 2.9.0), written as its full IRI, http://purl.org/spar/cito/ followed by the name. Only these are accepted; a vocabulary’s own terms are mapped to CiTO, and the key is omitted when the function is not stated. The ones most used in gazetteer data are citesAsEvidence (the source is the evidence for the claim), citesAsDataSource (the claim is taken from a dataset) and citesAsRelated.

The complete list: agreesWith, cites, citesAsAuthority, citesAsDataSource, citesAsEvidence, citesAsMetadataDocument, citesAsPotentialSolution, citesAsRecommendedReading, citesAsRelated, citesAsSourceDocument, citesForInformation, compiles, confirms, containsAssertionFrom, corrects, credits, critiques, derides, describes, disagreesWith, discusses, disputes, documents, extends, includesExcerptFrom, includesQuotationFrom, linksTo, obtainsBackgroundFrom, obtainsSupportFrom, parodies, plagiarizes, qualifies, refutes, repliesTo, retracts, reviews, ridicules, speculatesOn, supports, updates, usesConclusionsFrom, usesDataFrom, usesMethodIn.

These describe a citation of a source. They are not meta types: that one attestation retracts or supports another is a meta-attestation.

1.1.3.4.8. Meta-attestation types¶

A meta-attestation’s meta.metaType (plato:has_meta_type) is a concept in PLATO’s meta-type scheme, or one a project declares. Their meanings, and how meta-attestations work, are in Meta-attestations.

Meta type	IRI	In short
contradicts	`https://w3id.org/plato#Contradicts`	The target is incorrect.
supports	`https://w3id.org/plato#Supports`	More evidence for the target.
supersedes	`https://w3id.org/plato#Supersedes`	Replaces the target with newer information.
refines	`https://w3id.org/plato#Refines`	More precise than the target.
challenges	`https://w3id.org/plato#Challenges`	Questions the target’s validity.
bundles	`https://w3id.org/plato#Bundles`	Groups the target with related attestations.
derived from	`https://w3id.org/plato#DerivedFrom`	This value was derived from the target’s.
annotates	`https://w3id.org/plato#Annotates`	A remark on the target, in the notes.
alternative to	`https://w3id.org/plato#AlternativeTo`	An alternative reading of the same evidence.
retracts	`https://w3id.org/plato#Retracts`	The target is withdrawn by whoever made it.

1.1.3.4.9. Relation types¶

A relation’s relationType is one of PLATO’s RelationTypes (https://w3id.org/plato#ContainedIn, #MemberOf, #ConnectedTo, #LeadsTo, #BeginsAt, #EndsAt, #HasEnd, #BirthplaceOf, #DeathplaceOf, #ResidenceOf, #WorkplaceOf, #FindspotOf, #SettingOf, #DepictedIn, #SubjectOf) or one the document declares in its relationTypes. Containment is always ContainedIn. Their labels, inverses and meanings are in Relation types.

1.1.3.4.10. Identity and matching¶

Key	Values	Use
identity relation `identityType`	`exactMatch`, `closeMatch`, `related`, `unspecified`	How strongly two records are said to be the same place. See Identity.
Candidate status (`plato:candidate_status`, RDF only)	`suggested`, `confirmed`, `rejected`	The review state of a match suggested by software.

1.1.3.4.11. Gazetteers and contributors¶

Key	Values	Use
Gazetteer `status`	`draft`, `published`	Once `published`, a Gazetteer’s attestations are append-only and its `licence` is required.
contributor `role`	`principal_investigator`, `data_curator`, `student_researcher`, `automated_process`, `external_contributor`	A contributor’s role in the project or Gazetteer.