Terminology

Some loose definitions for terms commonly used in these documentation pages:

Module: A specific class of objects or concepts related to an archaeological excavation (Locus, Pottery, and Season are examples of modules).

Item: An individual object or concept related to an archaeological excavation. Each item is an instance of a specific module (for example, a recovered pottery sherd is an instance of the Ceramic module). All items of a specific module share common properties.

Collection: A collection of items related to an archaeological excavation. A collection may include items of the same module (such as the collection of all pottery sherds with a red slip) or multiple modules (the collection of the different small finds recovered from a specific locus).

Option: A textual value from a predefined list (a "group") which may be "attached" to an item. Options are used to define specific aspects of an item. (Basalt, Limestone, and Flint are examples of options that describe the Material property of a stone object, an instance of the Stone module). Option groups come in different flavors (required/optional, singular/multiple, module specific/application wide).

Trio: This software utilizes three-tiered hierarchy of Categories/Groups/Options to organize options. That is, each option belongs to a group and each group belongs to a category. For example, the Basalt option belongs to the Material group which belongs to the Basic Characteristics categaory. The mechanisms and data structures that support this hierarchy are loosely referred to as a Trio.

Option Dependency: Some option groups may be dependent on other options. For example, the "Chronology/Iron Subperiods” group is dependent on the the "Chronology/Common Periods/Iron” option. The dependency system allows for a flexible filtering/tagging which limits overchoice and may help prevent errors.

ODR: This term loosely refers to the software discussed here.