Inscription

• CURIE: gmeow:Inscription
• IRI: https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/Inscription
• Category: class
• Defined by: gmeow:slices/archaeological-evidence
• Box roles: TBox role (What is this?)

The sign-bearing content or mark on a physical carrier — a text, sequence of signs, or symbolic marking that is informationally distinct from the material object that bears it. An inscription is an InformationObject; its carrier is a PhysicalObject. Multiple inscriptions may coexist on one carrier, and competing readings of the same inscription coexist without privilege (Principle 9).

Structure

Subclass of: gmeow:InformationObject

Practical Pattern

Use gmeow:Inscription as a specialized kind of gmeow:InformationObject. Add statement metadata or a standpoint when the assertion needs provenance, confidence, or vantage.

Example Snippets

These snippets are generated from canonical slice examples and trimmed to the Turtle blocks where this term appears.

Inscription Reading

• Source: slices/extensions/archaeological-evidence/examples/inscription-reading.ttl
• Examples catalog: open in catalog#example-slices-extensions-archaeological-evidence-examples-inscription-reading

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2026 Blackcat Informatics® Inc. <paudley@blackcatinformatics.ca>
# SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0
#
# Worked example: a damaged inscription has many defensible readings (, P9).
# An gmeow:Inscription sits on a physical gmeow:carrierType (tablet, coin, seal …).
# Reading it is not a fact but a reified gmeow:InscriptionReading — an Observation
# with its own vantage and method — so two epigraphers' transcriptions of the same
# worn marks COEXIST, neither privileged. A gmeow:ScriptLanguageAttribution
# (cuneiform / Akkadian) is likewise a vantage-scoped claim, not a settled label.
@prefix gmeow: <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/> .
@prefix ex:    <https://blackcatinformatics.ca/gmeow/examples/archaeological-evidence/> .
@prefix rdfs:  <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .

ex:inscription a gmeow:Inscription ;
    gmeow:inscriptionCarrier ex:tablet .

Common Companion Terms

gmeow:InformationObject

External Equivalences

Equivalent or closely aligned targets: crm

Linkages

Generated from the canonical mapping DSL. SSSOM files are the generated public interchange form for term equivalences.

Term Equivalences