Partitions, Categories, Groups, and Options

Another design decision was to try and limit possible property values of different records to a specific list of options. For example, a stone artifact's "material" property should in theory include all known stones and minerals; however, in practice, a list of 20 options or fewer will be enough to cover the "material" property for all stones found in a particular excavation. This closed-ended approach, when properly implemented, may help to promote consistency.

Options were assigned to groups. In many cases, “Unassigned” and “Unknown” options were added to the group to complete its partition.

This general idea of closed-ended options was further expanded to include required/optional and singular/multiple options.

As an illustration, we may define the following groups in the ceramics module:

• Scope [Single Artifact, Basket (a collection of similar artifacts)] (required/singular)
• Material: [Unassigned, Unknown, Earthenware, Stoneware, Porcelain] (required/singular)
• Cultures: [Yarmukian, Wadi Rabah, Khirbet Kerak] (optional/multiple)
• Periods: [Neolithic, Chalcolithic] (optional/multiple)

Due to the potentialy large number of groups required to characterize properties of any specific record, the groups themselves were organized by categories.

Each module has its specific Categories/Groups/Options design, commonly referred to as the "Trio."