Documents, Inscriptions and Traces… the documental pyramid

The best ontological definition of document, I was able to find is in “Documentality: Why It Is Necessary to Leave Traces (Commonalities)“, by Maurizio Ferraris, http://www.amazon.com/Documentality-Necessary-Leave-Traces-Commonalities/dp/0823249697 that is the translation of “Documentalità: perché é necessario lasciar tracce” by Maurizio Ferraris http://www.amazon.it/Documentalit%C3%A0-Perch%C3%A9-necessario-lasciar-tracce/dp/8842091065/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355064359&sr=1-4 .

Documents are on the top of a four layered pyramid of signs.
On the left hand we have the escalation of objects towards documents and on the right hand we have the escalation of signs towards the documents. At the apex documents and objects merge: a banknote, a passport, are at the same time objects and documents. Marcel Duchamps “Still life with chair” is an object and a document: http://www.verkstad.com/images/art/duchamp/bicycle.jpg