Osteology — skeletal bone inventory

The osteology plugin adds a structured bone-inventory section to any table. It is designed for burial records in archaeological contexts: it stores the preservation state of up to 51 anatomical elements per individual in a single JSON column and renders them as an interactive SVG skeleton diagram directly in RecordView.

When to use it

Use this plugin when your records describe skeletal remains and you need to document:

• Which bones are present — and which are absent or not documented
• Conservation grade — complete, >50%, <50%, fragmentary, traces only
• Anatomical certainty — certain, probable, uncertain identification
• Laterality certainty — for paired elements (left/right), whether the side is certain or uncertain
• Multiple individuals — more than one skeleton recovered from the same burial unit

Enabling the plugin for a table

Go to Config → Tables, select the table, scroll to the System plugins section and toggle Inventario osteologico on. The system immediately adds one osteo_data TEXT column to the table. No other configuration is required.

To disable, toggle the switch off. The column — and any data already entered — is preserved; the panel simply disappears from RecordView. Toggle it back on at any time to restore the panel without data loss.

The osteology panel

Once enabled, an Inventario osteologico section appears in RecordView below the regular fields.

Read mode

Displays each individual's name (or a default label) with an SVG skeleton diagram. Bones are colour-coded by conservation grade:

Colour	Grade
Dark fill	Complete (complete)
Medium fill	> 50% (gt50)
Light fill	< 50% (lt50)
Hatched	Fragmentary (fragmentary)
Outline only	Traces (traces)
No fill	Absent or not documented

Hovering over a bone shows a tooltip with the anatomical name and all recorded attributes.

Edit mode

Two complementary editing views are available, toggled with the [SVG] [Table] buttons above the skeleton:

SVG view

Clicking on any bone opens a BonePanel sidebar with four fields:

Field	Options
Presence	Present / Absent / Not documented
Conservation	Complete / >50% / <50% / Fragmentary / Traces
Anatomical certainty	Certain / Probable / Uncertain
Laterality certainty	Certain / Uncertain (only for paired elements)

Changes are reflected immediately on the SVG. The SVG is zoomable (mouse wheel or +/− buttons) and pannable (click and drag on the background). A reset button (↺) restores the original view.

Table view

The table view shows all 65 bones in a scrollable grid organised by anatomical region. Each row exposes the same four fields inline — radio buttons for presence, dropdown selects for the other attributes — making it efficient for experts who prefer to compile the whole inventory without navigating the SVG.

Both views write to the same underlying JSON; switching between them at any point is non-destructive. Saving the record persists all bone data.

Multiple individuals

Use the tab bar above the SVG to switch between individuals. The Add individual button adds a new blank skeleton. Each individual has its own label and optional notes field.

Anatomical elements

51 bones are organised into 8 body regions:

Region	Count	Elements
Head (head)	3	Cranio, Faccia, Mandibola
Spine (spine)	5	Vertebre cervicali, toraciche, lombari; Sacro, Coccige
Thorax (thorax)	3	Sterno; Coste dx/sx
Shoulder (shoulder)	4	Clavicola dx/sx; Scapola dx/sx
Upper limb (upper_limb)	12	Omero, Radio, Ulna, Carpali, Metacarpali, Falangi mano (dx/sx each)
Pelvis (pelvis)	6	Ileo, Ischio, Pube (dx/sx each)
Lower limb (lower_limb)	8	Femore, Patella, Tibia, Fibula (dx/sx each)
Foot (foot)	10	Astragalo, Calcagno, Tarsali, Metatarsali, Falangi piede (dx/sx each)

Data model

A single column is added to the table when the plugin is activated:

Column	Type	Content
osteo_data	TEXT	JSON array of individuals (see structure below)

JSON structure:

{
  "individuals": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "label": "Individuo 1",
      "notes": "Scheletro in connessione anatomica parziale.",
      "bones": {
        "cranium": {
          "present": true,
          "conservation": "complete",
          "certainty": "certain"
        },
        "humerus_right": {
          "present": true,
          "conservation": "fragmentary",
          "certainty": "probable",
          "laterality_certainty": "uncertain"
        },
        "fibula_left": {
          "present": false
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

The bones object uses the standard anatomical English ID as the key (e.g. cranium, humerus_right, femur_left). Missing keys mean the element was not documented — distinct from present: false (explicitly absent) and present: true (present).

TIP

Because all data lives in a single JSON column, cross-record queries on individual bones (e.g. "all burials where the femur is present") are not supported via the standard search interface. For statistical analysis across the assemblage, export the data and process it externally.