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cuboideum edited this page Sep 28, 2020 · 4 revisions

Skeletal Inventories as Specified by the Standards for Data Collection in Skeletal Human Remains

Introduction

This is an RDFBones (Engel & Schlager 2019) implementation of chapter 2 of Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994). It provides an extension to the RDFBones core ontology supporting the compilation of skeletal inventories in compliance with the Standards for Data Collection in Skeletal Human Remains. This extension does not cover dental inventories for which are implemented separately (cf. Buikstra & Ubelaker 1994, chapter 5). It is also limited to scoring material representation. Information on material preservation and taphonomic traces is implemented separately (cf. Buikstra & Ubelaker 1994, chapter 6).

Two inventory procedures are supported addressing different deposition contexts (Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994, 5)):

  1. relatively complete skeletons, e.g. from burial features
  2. commingled and incomplete remains, including isolated bones

Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994, 5) suggest to use the inventory process to identify conditions that might warrant documentation. In terms of RDFBones, such observations should be formalised as assays in a specimen collection process for some investigation. For this reason, this aspect of skeletal inventory is not implemented here.

In order to facilitate and speed up skeletal inventory, Buikstra & Ubelaker (1994, 6) devise to record the presence of certain types of bones (e.g. phalanges or ribs) as counts rather than individual records. This conflicts with the principle of RDFBones that each natural bone needs to be represented by a specific instance. As a consequence, the summary documentation of bones cannot be implemented on the ontology level.

References

Buikstra, J. E., & Ubelaker, D. H. (1994). Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. In Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series. Fayetteville: Arkansas Archaeological Survey.

Engel, F., & Schlager, S. (2019). RDFBones – making research explicit: an extensible digital standard for research data. Anthropologischer Anzeiger, 76(3), 245–257. doi: 2019/0882

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