Skeletal inventories
Skeletal inventories are datasets describing bodies of skeletal material in terms of completeness and state of preservation. The basis of skeletal inventories might be different, depending on the nature of the skeletal material that is to be studied. Here are some examples:
- skeletal remains that are stored under one signature in a collection registry
- skeletal remains that were recovered from one archaeological structure, e.g. a grave
- bones that belong to one individual skeleton
Figure: General structure of skeletal inventories (cf. key to symbols in network graphs).
Skeletal inventories (:SkeletalInventory) are instances of the class obo:IAO_0000100 ('Data set') and contain specific types of measurement data (obo:OBI_0000305 'Measurement datum'):
- data on phenotypic expression of body features (rdfbones:PhenotypicExpressionDatum)
- data on obliteration of body features, e.g. during ontogeny (rdfbones:ObliterationDatum)
- data on completeness of skeletal elements (rdfbones:CompletenessDatum)
- data on taphonomic preservation (rdfbones:TaphonomicStateDatum).
The measurement data that make up a skeletal inventory are linked to the inventory they belong to through the object property obo:BFO_0000051 ('has part'). They can be realised both as categorical or as scalar measurement data (cf. How data are represented in OBI).
Each measurement datum is defined to relate to a specific skeletal region of interest (rdfbones:SkeletalRegionOfInterest). This relation is expressed through the object property obo:IAO_0000136 ('is about'). As definitions of regions of interest are arbitrary, skeletal inventories can be defined to collect data on any level of detail.
In a skeletal inventory, any skeletal region of interest will typically not have more than one measurement datum of types rdfbones:PhenotypicExpressionDatum, rdfbones:ObliterationDatum or rdfbones:CompletenessDatum related to it. On the other hand, more than one measurement datum of type rdfbones:TaphonomicStateDatum are likely to record different types of taphonomic damage.
If a skeletal inventory is compiled, it is important to consider the qualities of the material to be catalogued. The Foundational Model of Anatomy distinguishes between various bone components. With fresh bones, these include perishable materials like bone marrow. Such might be the subject of forensic investigations, anatomical preparations and other use cases involving bone from recently died carcasses. With material from historical and archaeological contexts, only the bony part of bone organs (consisting of cortical, compact and spongy bone) is preserved.
Skeletal inventories for fresh bone are composed of measurement data that are about instances of class rdfbones:BoneSegment or of one of its subclasses. These are constitutional parts of instances of class obo:FMA_5018 ('Bone organ') or one of its subclasses. These instances represent complete bones, including all substances of a bone organ in a living body. The measurement data in skeletal inventories for dry bone, on the other hand, are about instances of class rdfbones:SegmentOfBonyPartOfBone or one of its subclasses. These are constitutional parts of instances of class obo:FMA_83129 ('Bony part of bone organ') or one of its subclasses, all representing just those parts of a bone organ that is made of bone tissue.
Before compiling a skeletal inventory, users should verify that they use a subclass of class rdfbones:SkeletalInventory that is appropriate for the material to be investigated.
In most cases, skeletal inventories are organised according to some reference system (cf. Identification and referencing systems). They are referenced by a centrally registered identifier (CRID), that is part of such a system. CRIDs are linked to the entities they reference by the obo:IAO_0000136 ('is about') property.
