Summary

The Thing entity includes all possible concepts, material things, or events within the realm of shared
human experience and discourse. Thing is the root or base entity in RiC and as such includes all of the
entities that are of primary interest to records managers and archivists, as well as other entities used in
the description of the primary interest entities. Further, Thing encompasses all other possible entities
that are not explicitly identified in RiC as entities. Any possible Thing may be the subject of a Record
Resource, or associated with an Activity. Describing or referencing (for example, through a name) such
entities may be necessary for the description of context. Description of entities that are not explicitly
identified and described in RiC are commonly the responsibility of allied cultural heritage communities,
academic and research communities, or specialized or expert communities.

Details

The Records in Context - Conceptual Model v. 0.2 (preview) Dezember 2019 defines and describes the entity Thing as follows:
Definition
Any idea, material thing, or event within the realm of human experience

Scope Note
Includes all RiC entities as well as any concept, material thing, or event that may be the subject of a Record Resource or associated with an Activity.
Examples of entities not explicitly addressed in RiC includes but is not limited to the following: abstract concepts; cultural movements, named periods and events; named things, objects and works; legendary, mythical or fictitious figures, characters or beings.

Examples
Airplane; Impressionism; Puck; Renaissance; slavery; Before Christian Era (BCE); French
Revolution; a copy of an edition of William Shakespeare's Hamlet; Leonardo da Vinci's
Mona Lisa in the Musée du Louvre, Paris; the vertebrate zoology specimen collection at
the American Museum of Natural History; the Flatiron Building located at 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York City; Zumbi dos Palmares, líder do Quilombo dos Palmares e símbolo da
resistência do negro à escravidão no Brasil.

Comments
Compare further with: LRM-Res (Latin for Thing); and OWL-Thing (the root class of all ontologies expressed in OWL).

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