Vocabularies

Some columns in the spreadsheets, and some fields in JSON, take a word from a fixed list rather than free text. This page lists every such word, what it means, and the full identifier it stands for in PLATO. It is generated from the ontology, so it always matches it.

In the spreadsheets, write the word in the Value column exactly as shown, with the same capital letters. Four columns are exceptions, because the table definitions add the start of the word for you:

• attribution: write Stated or Inferred (not AttributionStated);

• stance: write Reported, Tentative, Doubted or Asserted (not StanceReported);

• transcription_accuracy: write Accurate, Inaccurate or False;

• transcription_completeness: write Complete, Reconstructable or NonReconstructable.

The kinds of spatial entity (TypeRoute and the others) are not written as words in any column: give the full identifier in a type row’s type_uri, as Routes, journeys and networks shows. In JSON and RDF, use the full identifier.

The lists are open: if you need a value that is not here, ask for it by opening an issue.

Attribution status

Starter concepts for plato:attribution_status. Whether the attribution of evidence to a cited source was stated or resolved editorially.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
AttributionInferred	The source was given as ibidem or idem and resolved by an editor, so the attribution is inferred rather than stated.	https://w3id.org/plato#AttributionInferred
AttributionStated	The source is named where the form occurs. The default attribution status, usually omitted.	https://w3id.org/plato#AttributionStated

Kind of spatial entity

Starter concepts for the kinds of SpatialEntity a platform treats specially: routes, itineraries, networks and segments. A Type attestation names one in its type identifier.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
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).	https://w3id.org/plato#TypeItinerary
TypeNetwork	A set of places and the connections between them, in no single order: a river system, a canal network, a correspondence network.	https://w3id.org/plato#TypeNetwork
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.	https://w3id.org/plato#TypeRoute
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.	https://w3id.org/plato#TypeSegment

Form status

Starter concepts for plato:form_status. The status of the name form an attestation contributes.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
Attested	A form read in the cited source. The default form status, usually omitted.	https://w3id.org/plato#Attested
Editorial	A form written by the editors of the cited edition in their own words (commentary, apparatus, notes), not a form the edited source itself contains. Use it when the citation is to an edition and the name occurs in the editors’ text, not in the edited text. It says nothing about whether the place’s name is attested elsewhere. Attested remains the default for forms the source contains.	https://w3id.org/plato#Editorial
Headword	The editorial or preferred form under which the cited authority files the entry. A scholarly decision rather than a reading.	https://w3id.org/plato#Headword
Normalised	A form derived from an attested one for matching or search, attested by no source and carrying no independent evidential value.	https://w3id.org/plato#Normalised
Preferred	The form the contributing project prefers for display and search: a project decision, so the cited source may show a different form.	https://w3id.org/plato#Preferred
Reconstructed	A form inferred but not attested; the philologists’ asterisked form.	https://w3id.org/plato#Reconstructed

Geometry role

Starter concepts for plato:geometry_role. What a geometry depicts, as distinct from how precisely it is known.

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

Meta-attestation type

Starter concepts for plato:has_meta_type. The nature of a meta-attestation’s relationship to its target attestation.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
AlternativeTo	This attestation and the target are alternative readings of the same evidence: at most one of them is right. Each keeps its own certainty. Link every alternative in a set to the same first one. A set of alternatives is one piece of evidence, not several, so it must be counted once.	https://w3id.org/plato#AlternativeTo
Annotates	Adds a remark about the target attestation, with its own source, without supporting, contradicting or refining it. The remark is the meta-attestation’s notes.	https://w3id.org/plato#Annotates
Bundles	Groups the target with other related attestations.	https://w3id.org/plato#Bundles
Challenges	Questions the validity of the target attestation.	https://w3id.org/plato#Challenges
Contradicts	Asserts that the target attestation is incorrect.	https://w3id.org/plato#Contradicts
DerivedFrom	This attestation’s value was derived from the target attestation’s, as a normalised search form is derived from an attested spelling.	https://w3id.org/plato#DerivedFrom
Refines	Provides more precise information than the target attestation.	https://w3id.org/plato#Refines
Retracts	The target attestation is withdrawn: it no longer holds, and is kept only so that earlier states of the gazetteer can be reproduced. A Gazetteer retracts the attestations it made, such as a bad import; a maintainer signs for the Gazetteer, and is recorded as the retraction’s contributor. It is not a claim about the person who first wrote the attestation. To dispute an attestation made by another Gazetteer, use plato:Contradicts. A tool showing the current state leaves a retracted attestation out. A retraction is itself an attestation: retracting it withdraws the withdrawal, and the target holds again.	https://w3id.org/plato#Retracts
Supersedes	Replaces the target attestation with newer information.	https://w3id.org/plato#Supersedes
Supports	Provides additional evidence for the target attestation.	https://w3id.org/plato#Supports

Occurrence context

Starter concepts for plato:occurrence_context. The capacity in which an attested form occurs in its source.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
Direct	The form refers to the SpatialEntity directly. The default occurrence context, usually omitted.	https://w3id.org/plato#Direct
InFieldName	The form survives only as an element of a later minor name, such as a field name.	https://w3id.org/plato#InFieldName
InPersonalName	The form occurs only as an element of a personal name, a surname or by-name; the (p) of the place-name surveys.	https://w3id.org/plato#InPersonalName

Relative qualifier

Starter concepts for plato:relative_qualifier. How a facet is defined relative to its anchor when bearing and distance are not applicable or not sufficient.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
BetweenXAndY	Between two anchors, given as two values of plato:relative_to, in no particular order.	https://w3id.org/plato#BetweenXAndY
Beyond	On the far side of the anchor from the point of view of the source.	https://w3id.org/plato#Beyond
DuringReignOf	A timespan defined by the reign or tenure of the anchor.	https://w3id.org/plato#DuringReignOf
Near	Close to the anchor, without a stated bearing or distance.	https://w3id.org/plato#Near
UpstreamOf	Upstream of the anchor along a watercourse.	https://w3id.org/plato#UpstreamOf
VariantOf	A name defined as a variant of the anchor name.	https://w3id.org/plato#VariantOf
Within	Inside the anchor.	https://w3id.org/plato#Within

Source stance

Starter concepts for plato:source_stance. How firmly the source itself asserts what an attestation records, as distinct from anyone’s confidence in it.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
StanceAsserted	The source states it as so, on its own account. The default source stance, usually omitted.	https://w3id.org/plato#StanceAsserted
StanceDoubted	The source raises it and declines to settle it. Not a denial, which is plato:negated.	https://w3id.org/plato#StanceDoubted
StanceReported	The source passes it on without vouching for it: ‘it is said’, ‘as Cambden noteth’.	https://w3id.org/plato#StanceReported
StanceTentative	The source states it, but with a hedge: ‘as it seems’, ‘were (if not are)’.	https://w3id.org/plato#StanceTentative

Timespan role

Starter concepts for plato:timespan_role. What an attestation’s timespans date: when what it records held, or the span of the evidence for it.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
EvidenceSpan	The span of the evidence: the dates of the earliest and latest documents that mention the entity. Not the dates of the entity itself.	https://w3id.org/plato#EvidenceSpan
WhenTrue	The period during which what the attestation records held, according to the source. The default.	https://w3id.org/plato#WhenTrue

Transcription accuracy

Starter concepts for plato:transcription_accuracy. How faithfully a transcribed value renders what the source shows.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
TranscriptionAccurate	The transcription renders what the source shows.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionAccurate
TranscriptionFalse	The transcribed form is not in the source at all: a ghost form, kept because it circulates and must be recognisable.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionFalse
TranscriptionInaccurate	The transcription departs from what the source shows, by misreading or error, but is a reading of something the source contains.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionInaccurate

Transcription completeness

Starter concepts for plato:transcription_completeness. Whether a transcribed value is whole, and if not, whether the lost part can be supplied.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
TranscriptionComplete	Nothing of the value is lost.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionComplete
TranscriptionNonReconstructable	Part of the value is lost and cannot be supplied.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionNonReconstructable
TranscriptionReconstructable	Part of the value is lost, damaged or abbreviated, but can be supplied with confidence.	https://w3id.org/plato#TranscriptionReconstructable

Certainty levels

The words that the certainty_level column, and certaintyLevel in JSON, can name, for certainty given in words rather than as a number.

Value	Meaning	Full identifier
Certain	The statement is certain: the source, or the contributor, has no doubt of it.	https://w3id.org/plato#Certain
LessCertain	The statement is probable but not certain.	https://w3id.org/plato#LessCertain
Uncertain	The statement is doubtful: possible, but not established.	https://w3id.org/plato#Uncertain

Relation types

The relations that the relation_type column of the relations sheet, and relationType in JSON, can name.

Value	Reads as	Inverse	Meaning
BeginsAt	begins_at	beginning_of	The subject segment begins at the target: a leg of an itinerary at the station it leaves, a river reach at its upstream confluence. With plato:EndsAt it gives a segment a direction. A segment with no direction is joined to its two ends with plato:HasEnd.
BirthplaceOf	birthplace_of	born_at	The subject is where the target person was born.
ConnectedTo	connected_to	connected_to	The subject and target are directly connected, in no particular direction: an attestation that A is connected to B says the same as one that B is connected to A. For a connection that runs one way, use plato:LeadsTo. A connection known in both directions from sources that each give one is better recorded as two LeadsTo attestations, each with its own source, than as one ConnectedTo.
ContainedIn	contained_in	contains	The subject SpatialEntity is contained in the target SpatialEntity, for the attested timespan: a parish in a hundred, a hundred in a county. Not an identity relation and not fixed by the class model; it is a claim, with a source and a certainty, like any other attestation. When a dataset’s containing regions are matched to a gazetteer (a parish’s county and country, looked up level by level), two claims are made, and kept apart. The dataset’s own claim is ContainedIn, pointing at a region minted from the dataset itself, one for each full chain of containers (England, Surrey), never for the name alone, so that two regions with one name in different chains are not merged. The reviewer’s decision that this region is the gazetteer’s is an IdentityRelation from it, whose promoted_from names the Candidate that holds the matching software’s similarity_score. A match score is not a certainty, so it is never put on the containment. In Linked Places Format the two are written together as one gvp:broaderPartitive relation: its relationTo is the identity’s object, its certainty the identity attestation’s certainty level, its whg_match_score the Candidate’s score and its label the region’s name. A region assigned by hand, with no software suggestion, may be stated directly against the gazetteer’s address instead.
DeathplaceOf	deathplace_of	died_at	The subject is where the target person died.
DepictedIn	depicted_in	depicts	The subject is shown in the target: a photograph, map, plan, drawing or other image, identified by its address in a collection.
EndsAt	ends_at	end_of	The subject segment ends at the target: a leg of an itinerary at the station it reaches, a river reach at its downstream confluence. See plato:BeginsAt.
FindspotOf	findspot_of	found_at	The target object (a coin, an inscription, a manuscript) was found at the subject. The timespan is when it was found, if known.
HasEnd	has_end	one_end_of	The subject segment has the target as one of its ends, in no particular direction: a stretch of road between two towns, walked either way. An undirected segment has two HasEnd attestations. Not plato:ConnectedTo, which joins two places directly: were a segment connected to its ends, every place would be two steps from its neighbours.
HomelandOf	homeland_of	has_homeland	The subject is land that the target people lived in or held, as the source says: the target is a people described elsewhere, identified by its address where it has one, and named by plato:related_label. A people is not itself a SpatialEntity.
LeadsTo	leads_to	reached_from	A directed connection, from the subject (attests_about) to the target (relates_to): one river flowing into another, a post road carrying mail from one town to the next, letters sent from one city to another. It joins two places; the reaches and legs of a network are segments, whose direction is given by plato:BeginsAt and plato:EndsAt. Not river-specific: a project declares its own narrower types (‘flows into’, ‘carries post to’) with plato:broader_relation pointing here, so that a consumer that knows only LeadsTo still follows them in the right direction.
MemberOf	member_of	has_member	The subject is a member of the target route, itinerary or network: a station on a road, a stop on a journey, a port in a trade network, a segment of a river system. Its position, where the source gives one, is plato:sequence on the same attestation. A route may be a member of another route (one stage of a pilgrimage), but not, through any chain of memberships, of itself. Not containment: a town on a road is not within it, and a network’s members need not lie inside anything.
ResidenceOf	residence_of	resided_at	The target person or group lived at the subject, for the attested timespan.
SettingOf	setting_of	took_place_at	The target event (a battle, a council, a fair) took place at the subject, wholly or in part.
SubjectOf	subject_of	about	The target is about the subject: an archival file, a site record, a report or a publication, identified by its address. Not a citation of the target as evidence for another statement, which is plato:has_citation.
WorkplaceOf	workplace_of	worked_at	The target person or group worked, or held office, at the subject, for the attested timespan: Linked Traces’ heldOffice, and work generally.