We present several interpretations of the behavior of P/T nets in terms of traces, event structures, and partial orders. Starting from results of Hoogers, Kleijn and Thiagarajan, we show how Petri nets determine local trace languages; these may be represented by local event structures in many ways, each method leading to a particular coreflection. One of these semantics is finally proved to be appropriate for the construction of a behavior preserving unfolding of Petri nets.