Why Source Transparency Matters
Readers should be able to understand why a statement was published.
Historical shrine research involves several different questions: the identity of a person, the genealogy attributed to that person, the existence and history of a structure, the location of the physical site, and the claim that a burial or event occurred there. These questions may require different kinds of evidence.
A citation is therefore not decorative. It shows where a claim came from, allows the reader to examine it, and helps future editors correct or refine the record.
Ten websites copying one unsourced paragraph remain one unsupported chain. The project tries to locate the earliest identifiable book, article, map edit, official notice, photograph, or local account behind repeated claims.
Evidence Hierarchy
A practical guide to the usual role of each source group.
| Evidence group | Typical use | How it is treated |
|---|---|---|
| Classical and early texts | Identity, events, early attributions, historical context | Use reliable editions where possible; compare variant reports and avoid isolated quotations. |
| Genealogical and biographical works | Lineage, family relationships, tribal or scholarly identity | Check chronology, missing generations, variant lineages, and the author’s method. |
| Specialist books and academic research | Critical analysis, architecture, regional history, modern scholarship | Prefer identifiable authors, publishers, journals, universities, and transparent citations. |
| Government, heritage, and institutional records | Official names, protected status, administration, reconstruction, modern condition | Strong for present legal or administrative facts; not automatic proof of an ancient attribution. |
| Maps and geospatial platforms | Discovery, navigation, coordinate comparison, nearby landmarks | Useful for location work; a map label alone does not establish historical identity. |
| Photographs, videos, and physical inspection | Building, signage, entrance, condition, access, visible local name | Strong for what is visibly present; separate observation from inherited historical explanation. |
| Community sources and local interviews | Local terminology, access, recent events, oral memory | Preserve useful knowledge but identify who reported what and seek independent corroboration. |
| Wikipedia and general aggregators | Orientation, spellings, source discovery | Never the sole authority for a contested identity, lineage, burial, or coordinate. |
How a Source Is Evaluated
Reputation matters, but relevance and method matter as well.
Authorship
Is the author or institution identifiable, qualified, and accountable for the material?
Relevance
Does the source actually address the person, place, lineage, building, or coordinate being discussed?
Independence
Is this an independent observation or merely a repetition of another unsourced page?
Chronology
How close is the source to the historical event, building phase, map state, or local observation?
Transparency
Does it cite evidence, explain its method, identify photographs, or link to an original record?
Corroboration
Does the claim agree with other independent evidence, and are the disagreements explained?
Books, Editions, and Scholarly Research
Book references remain central, but they are not all used in the same way.
The atlas prefers identifiable editions, full titles, authors, volume or page information where available, and enough bibliographic detail for another person to locate the source. Classical chronicles, biographical dictionaries, genealogical works, regional histories, shrine studies, archaeological publications, and modern academic research may each answer different questions.
A later specialist study may be more useful than an early text for architecture or modern site history, while an early text may be essential for tracing an attribution. The project therefore weighs the source according to the claim rather than applying one automatic ranking to every question.
- Quoted or paraphrased claims should not exceed what the cited text actually supports.
- Volume and page details are recorded when available and reliable.
- Variant reports are preserved when the disagreement is historically meaningful.
- A translation is checked against the original language when the wording affects identity, lineage, or certainty.
Websites and Digital Publications
Online access is useful, but a web page must still be evaluated as a source.
Universities and research institutes
Useful when authorship, institutional responsibility, citations, and publication context are visible.
Government and heritage portals
Important for modern names, legal status, restoration, administration, and official announcements.
Digital journals and repositories
Evaluate the paper, author, journal, version, and whether the accessible copy is complete.
Wikipedia and encyclopedic pages
Use for orientation and discovering references; verify important claims in the cited or independent sources.
A polished website may contain unsupported material, while a modest scanned book or institutional catalogue may preserve stronger evidence.
Maps, GPS, and Visual Evidence
Location evidence is assembled through comparison, not copied from one pin.
Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, local mapping services, and Overpass Turbo are used to discover names, objects, roads, cemeteries, religious buildings, entrances, and nearby landmarks. Satellite imagery, street-level imagery where available, photographs, videos, and physical inspection help determine whether the coordinate points to the intended structure.
Overpass Turbo can retrieve OpenStreetMap objects and tags, but its output remains community-maintained map data. Every proposed coordinate is manually compared with the wider evidence before it is added to a shrine record.
Discover
Find possible map objects, spellings, landmarks, roads, and local labels.
Compare
Check multiple map platforms, imagery, photographs, descriptions, and physical relationships.
Identify the target
Decide whether the coordinate represents an entrance, building, grave enclosure, mosque, memorial, or wider complex.
Manually verify
Confirm consistency before assigning a GPS confidence level or publishing the point.
Community Groups, Social Media, and Interviews
Local evidence can be valuable without becoming automatic historical proof.
Facebook groups, YouTube videos, community pages, family posts, local guides, and interviews may preserve recent photographs, signage, road access, reconstruction, local pronunciation, and information unavailable elsewhere. They are treated as supporting or discovery sources unless independently corroborated.
The project distinguishes a direct observation — such as “the sign at the entrance uses this name” — from an inherited claim such as “the person buried here is said to be a descendant of…”. Both may be recorded, but they do not carry the same evidentiary weight.
- Record the creator, group, interviewee, date, and context when possible.
- Check whether the photograph or video actually shows the stated location.
- Avoid treating likes, shares, repetition, or popularity as historical verification.
- Do not publish private personal information without a legitimate reason and appropriate consent.
Citation and Attribution Rules
References should remain usable to readers and future editors.
- Book references identify the title, author, and volume or page where available.
- Website references are displayed as separate usable links rather than one broken combined URL.
- Photographs and user submissions retain source or photographer credit when known and permitted.
- Direct quotations remain limited and are distinguished from editorial summary.
- A source is cited for the claim it actually supports; one citation is not stretched across unrelated statements.
- When a link becomes unavailable, the bibliographic reference and relevant notes are preserved where possible.
Conflicting Evidence and Unresolved Claims
Disagreement is documented rather than concealed.
When credible sources disagree, the record may summarize the principal positions, identify the evidence behind each one, explain why the issue remains unresolved, and use cautious wording such as attributed, traditionally associated, probable, disputed, or unknown.
The presence of a modern shrine structure may establish the existence and social importance of the site without proving every claim about the person, grave, date, or lineage. These questions are kept separate so that one strong fact does not lend artificial certainty to another.
The wording of a published statement must never be stronger than the evidence supporting it.
Corrections and Better Sources
A source policy must allow improvement.
Readers, researchers, custodians, families, and local communities may submit a correction, book reference, working link, photograph, map suggestion, or field observation. A submission does not become public automatically; it is reviewed against the existing record and other available evidence.
Useful submissions should identify the shrine code or page, state the proposed correction clearly, and explain the source of the new information. Significant revisions may be reflected in record notes or future version history.