place-attestation-ontology/examples/simple-attestation.ttl at main · pelagios/place-attestation-ontology · GitHub

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@prefix plato: <https://w3id.org/plato#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
@prefix whgx: <https://whgazetteer.org/example/> .

# The "whgx:" prefix is used throughout these examples for illustrative
# URIs that represent WHG entities (Things, Attestations, Gazetteers, etc.).
# In a production system these would be real, resolvable WHG identifiers
# such as <https://whgazetteer.org/place/12345> or
# <https://whgazetteer.org/attestation/67890>. The "whgx:" namespace
# makes it clear that these URIs are fictional while still showing the
# structural shape of real WHG data. External URIs that already exist
# (GeoNames, TNA Discovery, AAT, ORCiD) are used directly.


# =============================================================================
# A simple attestation: a scholar's source mentions a known place
#
# Scenario: A historian working on 15th-century English trade finds a
# reference to "Bristowe" in a customs account dated 1480. The place is
# clearly Bristol, which already exists in the WHG index via GeoNames.
#
# The scholar does not need to define Bristol from scratch. They attest
# that their source references the existing Thing, with the name form
# and date found in their source.
# =============================================================================


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The Thing already exists — it was created from GeoNames authority data.
# The scholar references it by its stable WHG identifier. The GeoNames
# URI is the authority source, not the Thing's identity.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:thing/bristol
    a plato:Thing ;
    plato:thing_identifier "geonames:2654675" ;
    plato:namespace "geonames" .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The Name as found in the scholar's source
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:name/bristowe-enm
    a plato:Name ;
    plato:toponym "Bristowe"@enm ;
    plato:language "enm" ;
    plato:script "Latn" .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Timespan: the date of the source document
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:timespan/1480
    a plato:Timespan ;
    plato:start_earliest "1480" ;
    plato:start_latest "1480" ;
    plato:end_earliest "1480" ;
    plato:end_latest "1480" ;
    plato:start_precision "year" ;
    plato:end_precision "year" .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Source: the customs account
#
# The TNA Discovery URI is a real, resolvable identifier for this document.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:source/tna-e122-73-12
    a plato:Source ;
    plato:authority_title "London customs account, 1480" ;
    plato:bibliographic_string "TNA E122/73/12, London petty custom account, Mich. 1480 – Mich. 1481" ;
    plato:authority_uri <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C5738289> ;
    plato:partOf whgx:dataset/london-customs .

whgx:dataset/london-customs
    a plato:Dataset ;
    plato:authority_title "London Customs Accounts Project" ;
    plato:publisher "University of Pittsburgh" ;
    plato:licence <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/> .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The scholar — identified by ORCID
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:org/uofpitt
    a plato:Organization ;
    rdfs:label "University of Pittsburgh" .

whgx:contributor/trade-historian
    a plato:Contributor ;
    plato:contributor_name "Jane Smith" ;
    plato:contributor_orcid "https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1234-5678" ;
    plato:contributor_affiliation whgx:org/uofpitt ;
    plato:contributor_role "principal_investigator" .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The Gazetteer this attestation belongs to
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:gazetteer/english-trade
    a plato:Gazetteer ;
    plato:authority_title "Ports in 15th-Century English Trade" ;
    plato:gazetteer_owner whgx:contributor/trade-historian ;
    plato:gazetteer_status "draft" ;
    plato:contains_thing whgx:thing/bristol ;
    plato:contains_attestation whgx:attestation/bristowe-1480 .


# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# The Attestation itself
#
# Note what is happening here: the scholar is NOT creating a new place.
# They are attesting that their source (TNA E122/73/12) references an
# existing Thing (GeoNames Bristol) using the name form "Bristowe" at
# a specific date. This is the attestation-first model in action.
# -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

whgx:attestation/bristowe-1480
    a plato:Attestation ;
    plato:attests_about whgx:thing/bristol ;
    plato:attests_name whgx:name/bristowe-enm ;
    plato:attests_timespan whgx:timespan/1480 ;
    plato:sourced_by whgx:source/tna-e122-73-12 ;
    plato:contributed_by whgx:contributor/trade-historian ;
    plato:certainty 1.0 ;
    plato:certainty_note "Unambiguous identification; Bristol is the only plausible referent." ;
    plato:created "2026-02-15T12:00:00Z"^^xsd:dateTime .


# =============================================================================
# Observations
#
# 1. No Geometry is attested. The scholar's source doesn't provide spatial
#    information — that comes from the GeoNames authority data already
#    associated with the Thing. Not every attestation needs to assert
#    every property.
#
# 2. No Type is attested. The scholar might add one later (e.g. AAT "port"),
#    or leave it to the existing authority classification.
#
# 3. The name "Bristowe" is a Middle English form not present in GeoNames.
#    By attesting it, the scholar enriches the Thing with a historical
#    name variant that benefits all users of the WHG index.
#
# 4. This is what a typical scholarly contribution looks like: minimal,
#    focused, evidence-based. The system should make it easy, not force
#    the contributor through a full place-definition workflow.
# =============================================================================