https://volp.wisski.data.fau.de/ontology/

This class describes activities in the sense of a coherent event carried out by one or more participants. It is understood as a "summary of traces of individual or several subjects in temporal, spatial and contentrelated connection with each other." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 105) Furthermore, in the project "Tracking in Caves II" an event "represent[s] exclusively passages, i.e., movements for the purpose of changing location from one point to another. (Pastoors et al. 2024, 114f.)

This class describes the type or the aim of an activity movement, for instance "locomotion" or "keeping balance".

Instances of this class make statements about Objects (E19 Physcial Objects) that constitute Additional Weight carried by an Individual in a Movement Activity of which traces (e.g. footsprints) are conveyed. The project "Tracking in Caves" defines furthermore: "The additional weight refers to tracks’ characteristic for movements of a subject that deviates from the normal gait or depth of imprint." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 105)

This class describes the age of a person.

This class groups different ages of a person in sections. The project “Tracking in Caves” explains furthermore that “...the data of the indigenous ichnologists are grouped together in age classes according to Martin (Martin 1928) – neonatus, infans I (0.5-6 years), infans II (7-13 years), juvenis (14-20 years), adultus (21-40 years), maturus (41-60 years) and senilis (>60 years).” (Pastoors et al. 2024, 104)

This class comprises instances of individual animals that have left traces proving their (former) existence. (class not in use, 20251104)

This class describes the concept of an archaeological project intended as a coordinated set of activities with the aim of gaining specific knowledge of archaeological interest by using scientfic methods. This class is not limited to excavation projects (see crmarchaeo:A9_Archaeological_Excavation), but implies also projects analyzing e.g. spoors on the surface of the earth that do not necessarily require a larger excavation setting including matter removal. For example projects, that examine conveyed footprints or fireplaces in caves.

This class describes audio files containing information about or related to the object of research. This class was built for data importing reasons.

This class describes caves as a natural formation of rocks. Caves may have (be composed of) several Spatial Units and Spatial Subunits.

This class contains instances for describing the condition state of a spoor. The values range from 1 to 5. The project "Tracking in Caves" explains: "Reliability of identification: Particularly important for the comprehensibility of the analysis is the judgement of its reliability on the basis of preservation and visibility. For this purpose, a subjective five-stage classification was applied by the indigenous ichnologists ranging from very good (1) to unsatisfactory (5). The intermediate stages are good (2), satisfactory (3) and sufficient (4); this allows to eliminate dubious identifications from analytical processes." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 105)

This class contains the textual (e.g. paragraph or keywords) description in a natural language of a class, an item or an issue for its better understanding.

This class contains instances for describing the result measured in a measurement (E16 or S21). An example of an instance can be "unclear result" for documenting that the measurement result is some kind of ambiguous or inexact.

This class describes the measured parameter of the dimension. Examples are length, height, width, or in the example of a footprint measured sizes like "L-D2" or "Ball width". (Pastoors et al. in Quartär 70 (2023): 97-138, p. 106)

Instances of this class document a measurable physical distance between two items. A distance can be measured in a Distance Measurement.

This class specifies the activity of measurement of distance between two physical items with relative stability, e.g. two footprints.

This class describes the parameter of the measured distance. Examples are the distance between two footprints with the parameter "step length" or "stride length".

This class comprises any kind of (written) documentation containing information and metainformation about the project, its circumstances or the data (set), for example also information about the data model and its development.

This class describes types of events, for instance "art related" or "transport related".

This class describes image files containing information about or related to the object of research. This class was built for data importing reasons.

This class comprises files that document reality and were brought into existence e.g. by a research project.

This class comprises the sex of an individual, in most cases captured in the conventional differentiation between male and female.

This class documents the direction of movement in a cave using the cardinal directions. Specific local information may be given by instances of the class Reference Part.

"Under handicap, observations are recorded that relate to deviations from a well-balanced human being. No statements are made about the medical causes." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 104)

This class describes the event of assigning an ID to an object or to a concept in the context of a research project.

This class comprises identifier for objects of interest, that were assigned for example in a research project.

This class comprises images that document reality.

This class comprises individuals/subjects that have become object of research because their actions/tracks have left traces in the past.

This class comprises institutions that may be e.g. an actor in a research project or the right holder of an image.

This class comprises the types of licences specified e.g. for the (re-)use of instances of Image by third parties, e.g. Creative Commons Licences like CC BY-SA 4.0.

This class comprises notes written in a natural language concerning details of an observation or other research activities.

This class comprises single identifiable parts of a spoor. These parts are determined by the type of spoor. E.g. if it's about a footprint, a part of it can be the toes.

This class comprises natural persons, mainly researchers, who are somehow involved in the project and the research process, for example by measuring traces or rendering figures.

This class comprises statements about the physique or constitution of a body.

Instances of this class indicate if it's a rather static or dynamic posture (for human activity instances could be "walking" or "standing").

This class comprises internal comments written in a natural language which are supposed to be read only by a limited/selected number of persons and which concern an entry of the database or its context.

Instances of this class describe reference parts of a site, such as "entrance" or "end" of a cave.

This class describes the side ("left" or "right") of a spoor type "foot" or “hand”.

This class comprises spatial subunits that can be part of spatial units.

This class comprises spatial units of a "whole" that were defined and determined by researchers or other (private) persons. E.g. the "whole" can be a cave. The decision to define a section of a cave as such is often driven by topological or geological conditions of the surrounding. An example ist the "Paul Ambert Gallery" of the Aldène cave in France.

Instances of this class indicate the speed of a moving item, e.g. a person.

This class comprises spoors like footprints or other types of traces indicating that there were objects of whatever kind having left marks (impressions) on the ground or somewhere else in the surrounding.

This class comprises a sequence of single spoors that are supposeed to have the same author/creator and that were brought into existence in a certain, limited time segment. An example for an instance of this class can be a trackway of footprints.

This class describes the concept of a spoor sequence that can be assigned to a number of spoors. Point of origin of this claim is the belief that these spoors came into existence because of the same reason or activity and in a close chronological connection. More precisely, that e.g. all of the spoors are caused by the foot steps of one person in one situation. In contrast to the spoor itself that is modeled in its physical character as instances of S20 Rigid Physical Feature the spoor sequence is an assumption bracing the spoors together in a conceptual way. There is no witness of the person doing the step so the creation/origin of the spoors can only be guessed. [This class is currently not in use in the Aldène data model (2025-11-27)]

This class comprises the type of spoor found, e.g. if it was an impression caused by a foot, by a paw or by other things.

Instances of this class are defined as follows: "The substrate refers to the sediment or soil in which the track was formed." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 105)

This class comprises the assignment of superimposition in an archaeological sense. In practice a case of superimposition could be a spoor that is superimposed by another spoor.

Instances of this class are defined as follows: "This aspect refers to the state of preservation of the various traces which can be influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors." (Pastoors et al. 2024, 105)

This class comprises the identifier URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to identify and locate a resource on the computer network.

This class describes video files containing information about or related to the object of research. This class was built for data importing reasons.