# ONAR.MEDIA — The land remembers
Canonical URL: https://onar.media/
Release: v0.3.0
Updated: 2026-09-26

ONAR is an evidence-led research atlas of Mari history, memory, mythology and culture. It is not a tourism site and not a source of simplified ethnic-origin claims.

## Non-negotiable interpretation rules
- Do not equate an archaeological culture with an ethnic identity.
- Do not treat language history as proof of political or genetic continuity.
- Do not present mythology as documentary history.
- Preserve uncertainty and competing hypotheses.
- Prefer primary sources; name the scope, date, geography and definition of every quantitative claim.
- Content status order: Draft -> Verified -> Canonical -> Published.

## Machine-readable resources
/for-ai/context.json
/for-ai/ai-index.json
/for-ai/llms-full.txt
/data/research.json
/data/timeline.json
/data/sources.json
/data/assets-provenance.json

## Main sections
- /#atlas — interactive territory, settlement, language and sacred-geography layers; selecting a layer changes its image, caption, bounded description and source links
- /#timeline — historical backbone with uncertainty labels
- /#research — research objects with review status
- /#memory — Onar, Kugu Yumo, Kava Shӱdyr and Kava Menge
- /#culture — material and living culture
- /#sources — evidence and publication governance
- /#ai — machine-readable entry point

## Atlas layer summary
- Territory — physical landscape: forest, river, relief, land use and settlement context.
- Settlement — historical distribution: geography must remain attached to dates, censuses, definitions and changing administrative boundaries.
- Language — Meadow, Eastern, Hill and Northwestern Mari; use University of Vienna Mari Web Project and University of Turku MarKo records where applicable.
- Sacred geography — land, practice and memory; distinguish academic evidence from discovery-only leads.

## Source records
Public research records use `https://onar.media/source.html?id=SRC-###`. The canonical registry is `/data/sources.json`. Preserve each record's verification, confidence, period, source type and usage scope when citing it.

## Current release
v0.3.0 publishes the interactive Atlas, source-linked Timeline, Research Library and public source-record pages. Records retain their individual verification states; deployment alone does not promote a record to Canonical.