How claims earn trust
Each major claim should be specific enough to verify, challenge, or revise. The site should show the difference between a source, an interpretation, and a reconstruction.
What can support a record
Sources may include texts, manuscripts, inscriptions, archaeology, material culture, museum records, maps, oral tradition, linguistics, scholarship, geography, and contemporary documentation.
Written record
Manuscripts, inscriptions, chronicles, letters, archive records, translations, catalogs, and scholarship.
Material record
Artifacts, monuments, architecture, excavation records, museum entries, material analysis, and provenance trails.
Historical setting
Maps, ecology, trade routes, political geography, language, religion, law, and neighboring societies.
Limits and disputes
Disputed dates, incomplete provenance, contested names, uncertain locations, and competing scholarly interpretations.
Date standards
Historical records and documentary pages should identify whether a date is exact, circa, ranged, disputed, traditional, source-derived, or a modern scholarly estimate.
Simultaneous is not always connected
Documentary and companion story pages should separate directly connected events from simultaneous events elsewhere, so the site does not imply causation where it only means same period.
Citations and revisions
Source trails should be updated when better records appear. Corrections, rights updates, and provenance revisions should link back to the affected records.
Current facts and dated findings
Current host and display information identify their source and verification date. Provenance, ownership, and historical locations remain distinct. Price records cite the sale, estimate, or qualified comparison, currency, date, fees and limitations; missing prices are unknown. Dated findings preserve the original narrative, while material corrections also appear prominently at its top.