Temporal Semantics¶
Temporal semantics is the layer that keeps chronology readable across source families that express time in different ways.
Why This Layer Exists¶
The repository compares material from several domains:
- release-based human ancient DNA
- animal ancient DNA recovered from papers and supplements
- pollen and archaeology context with their own dating conventions
Those families do not describe time with one common grammar. Temporal semantics exists so public outputs can compare them without pretending they are all equally precise.
What You Should Be Able To Tell¶
This layer should make the following visible:
- whether a time claim is exact, ranged, broad, or text-derived
- whether two records are reasonably comparable
- whether a public label is being simplified for readability
- where uncertainty has been preserved instead of erased
Why It Matters In Public Outputs¶
Map filters and summary labels can make a dataset look more coherent than it really is. Temporal semantics is one of the mechanisms that prevents that illusion by keeping uncertainty attached to the claim.
Direct Files Behind This Surface¶
data/sead/review/temporal_review.jsondata/sead/review/evidence_legibility_review.jsondata/sead/review/access_model.jsondata/sead/review/recovery_roadmap.json