What is a defensible digital timeline?¶

A defensible digital timeline is a traceable selection of relevant events that preserves source, original time, event meaning and uncertainty. Sorting timestamps is only the beginning.

The timeline separates evidence from interpretation¶

Each significant entry identifies its source record, original timestamp and zone, any conversion, event stage, result and link identifiers. Source time and ingestion time remain distinct. Added explanation and inferred relationships are visibly different from recorded fields.

Contradictions, equal timestamps and gaps should not be silently repaired. Use ranges or qualified order where clock quality and precision do not support a single instant.

Selection and correlation must be reproducible¶

The timeline should answer an investigative question without drowning it in irrelevant events, but inclusion and exclusion must be explainable. Every entry points back to preserved material and every correlated chain states its linking basis.

Chronology supports sequence; it does not alone prove causation, attribution or intent. Those conclusions should be made separately and no more strongly than the combined evidence allows.