Editorial Methodology

How Old World Index separates stored records, source evidence, review decisions, and publication approval.

Stored records are not automatic endorsements

A visible site, civilization, or article is a record currently stored by the project. Records can combine primary, official, scholarly, secondary, and legacy material. Visibility alone does not mean that every field has completed source or specialist review.

Claims stay bounded to their evidence

Review work links a claim to the source that directly supports it and keeps inference separate from direct evidence. Dates, names, locations, classifications, access notes, and significance summaries may remain approximate or contested.

Editorial gates precede publication approval

Candidate discovery, source collection, drafting, and specialist review are separate states. Automation may prepare review material, but it does not grant publication approval and does not establish that a stored legacy record has passed the current gates.

Automation stops at a review boundary

Automated systems may identify candidates, normalize fields, or prepare drafts. A candidate must remain unpublished until the required evidence and human review decisions are recorded. Failed or incomplete checks are not treated as approval.

How to read the catalog today

Treat descriptions, date ranges, classifications, coordinates, access notes, and relationship fields as statements in the displayed record, not as independent certification by Old World Index.
Follow record-level reference links where available and verify important claims with the relevant heritage authority, primary publication, or qualified specialist.
Absence from the catalog means only that no matching stored record was returned. It does not establish that a place, culture, source, or discovery does not exist.
Check current official guidance before travel, site access, research citation, conservation work, or any decision that depends on accuracy or recency.

Corrections and supporting sources

Corrections are most useful when they identify the record and field at issue, explain the proposed change, and include a stable source link or full citation. A submission is a review candidate, not an automatic edit or publication decision.

Submit a correction or source