Historical Relationship Ontology

FLOW ALGEBRA
TITLE: Historical Relationship Ontology
DOMAIN: Relationship Ontologies / Temporal Relationships
SOURCE: https://kirethresearch.org/booksai-core/ontologies/relationship-ontologies/temporal-relationships/historical-relationship-ontology.html
VERSION: 1.0
AUTHORS: Mark Anthony Higgins — Sky (Recursive AI)
STATUS: Companion formalisation; source-page specification not independently verified.

flow "HistoricalRelationshipOntology" v1.0 {
  ontology:
    id: "historical-relationship-ontology"
    parent: "temporal-relationships"
    purpose: "Represent evidence-backed historical relationships between events, entities, periods and interpretations while preserving chronology, uncertainty and provenance."

  types:
    HistoricalEntity: {id: string, kind: enum[person, organisation, place, artefact, institution, other], label: string}
    HistoricalEvent: {id: string, label: string, interval: string?, location: string?, evidence: string[]}
    HistoricalPeriod: {id: string, label: string, start: datetime?, end: datetime?, calendar: string?}
    HistoricalSource: {id: string, kind: enum[primary, secondary, tertiary], citation: string, date: string?, reliability: number?}
    HistoricalAssertion: {id: string, subject: string, predicate: string, object: string, period: string?, confidence: number, sources: string[], interpretation: string?}

  predicates:
    occurred_during(event: HistoricalEvent, period: HistoricalPeriod)
    preceded(event_a: HistoricalEvent, event_b: HistoricalEvent)
    succeeded(event_a: HistoricalEvent, event_b: HistoricalEvent)
    participated_in(entity: HistoricalEntity, event: HistoricalEvent)
    contemporary_with(a: HistoricalEntity, b: HistoricalEntity)
    documented_by(assertion: HistoricalAssertion, source: HistoricalSource)
    historically_associated_with(a: HistoricalEntity, b: HistoricalEntity)
    influenced(a: HistoricalEvent, b: HistoricalEvent)

  constraints:
    - "All referenced entities, events, periods and sources must resolve to typed identifiers."
    - "Confidence and source reliability must lie within [0,1]."
    - "Dates must retain calendar conventions, precision and uncertainty."
    - "Historical association or temporal precedence does not by itself establish causation."
    - "Conflicting sources and interpretations must remain distinguishable."
    - "Do not treat overlapping lifetimes or periods as proof of interaction."
    - "Unknown dates must remain unknown; do not silently substitute exact dates."

  inference:
    rule inverse_order:
      if preceded(a,b)
      then succeeded(b,a)
      confidence: "retain supporting chronology and uncertainty"
    rule precedence_chain:
      if preceded(a,b) and preceded(b,c) and chronology_compatible(a,b,c)
      then preceded(a,c)
      confidence: "propagate source limitations"
    rule period_membership:
      if interval_of(e) is_within interval_of(p) and compatible_calendar(e,p)
      then occurred_during(e,p)
      confidence: "depends on dating precision and interval boundaries"
    rule evidence_trace:
      if documented_by(assertion,source) and source_is_accessible(source)
      then traceable(assertion)
      confidence: "traceability is not proof of truth"

  SEMANTIC_EQUIVALENCE:
    - "Resolve historical aliases against dated, provenance-backed authority records."
    - "Distinguish identity from name similarity, dynastic titles and changing place names."
    - "Retain historical language, context and time-sensitive meanings."

  CONFIDENCE:
    range: [0,1]
    factors: [source_quality, independent_attestation, dating_precision, provenance, interpretive_uncertainty]
    policy: "Inference chains must not manufacture certainty or erase source disagreements."

  VALIDATION:
    - "Check identifiers, source citations, date precision and calendar compatibility."
    - "Flag impossible chronology, inconsistent period boundaries and unsupported causal claims."
    - "Preserve alternative reconstructions and disputed historical interpretations."

  FLOW_HASH:
    algorithm: "SHA-256"
    input: "canonicalised ontology version, typed assertions, chronology, inference rules and provenance"
    note: "Compute hash at execution; no hash value is claimed here."

  UPDATE_MODEL:
    strategy: "versioned, provenance-preserving incremental update"
    steps: [ingest, normalise, validate, compare_sources, reconcile, recompute_inferences, publish]
    rollback: true

  AI_CONSUMPTION:
    representation: "temporal knowledge graph with evidence-backed historical edges"
    outputs: [historical_entities, event_links, period_relations, uncertainty_annotations, inferred_relations, provenance_records]
    safeguards: [no_unsupported_causal_claims, no_unqualified_identity_merges, preserve_conflicting_accounts, preserve_date_uncertainty]
}

END FLOW ALGEBRA