Dealing with Inscriptions in the Object Biography

Presentation on dealing with inscriptions in the object biography as part of the workshop “Workshop Object - Text - Image” Community Cluster ‘Objects as Information Carriers’, NFDI4Objects, 28.04.2025 The model presented highlights the recording of object inscriptions as part of the digital object biography. Developed at FAU Competence Center for Research Data and Information in context of NFDI4Objects Task Area 6, it serves to integrate heterogeneous and distributed object information with a strong focus on information provenance. The object is viewed in the context of events in its life history, such as its creation, its use, a museum or collection context, its modification or research activities, each of which can be linked to actors, time and place and must always be documented with sources. The object biography is modeled using the N4O Objects Ontology, whose top-level ontology is CIDOC CRM version 7.1.3. Inscriptions are currently recorded in the digital object biography in two contexts: when the object is created or produced (E12 Production) and when it is modified (E11 Modification), for example when inscriptions are added, restored or otherwise altered. When recording an inscription (E34 Inscription), its transcription (E31 Document) and language (E56 Language) can be documented. The inscription, in turn, is linked to a physical feature (E25 Human-made Feature) by which it is carried (P128 is carried by) and on which it can be located (P59 has section).Meanwhile, the approach to inscriptions on labels is different: labels are regarded as sources that can, for example, document historical inventory numbers or designations. They do not represent an integral part of the object and are more likely to be assigned to a specific collection context. When recording inscriptions in the digital object biography, the fundamental question arises as to the level of detail of their recording, especially in the case of objects that bear several inscriptions. This is also the case with the presented use case of the Behaim Globe from 1492/94 in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg, which alone bears over 2000 toponyms (place names). In the course of the discussion, the question was raised as to whether inscriptions should not also play a role in the context of the use of an object, for example when they are read aloud by certain actors.