Partitions, Categories, Groups, and Options

Another design decision was to utilize as much as possible groups with a limited number of options for characterizing properties of different records. For example, a stone artifact material property may include all known stones and minerals; however, for all practical purposes, a list of 20 options or fewer will be sufficent to describe all stone material found in a particular excavation.

“Unassigned” and “Unknown” options may be added to a list of options to complete their group's partition.

This general idea of "limited selection" can be expanded to include required/optional and singular/multiple selections. The list of "options," or textual labels, may be edited to fit specific needs.

As an example, we may define the following groups in the ceramics module as chronological indicators to any specific basket or artifact:

• Periods: [Unassigned, Unknown, Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze, Iron, ...] (required/singular)
• Cultures: [Unassigned, Unknown, Yarmukian, Wadi Rabah, Khirbet Kerak, ...] (required/singular)
• Technology: [Gray Wash, Metallic, Grain-Wash, ...] (optional/multiple)

Due to the potentialy large number of groups required to characterize any specific record, they are grouped together into seperate categories.

Every module has its own structure of Categories/Groups/Options. It is referred to as the "Trio."