Modeling an Ontology for Heritage Science: Challenges and Key Strategies

This paper presents the authors' contributions to the Humanities and Cultural Heritage Italian Open Science Cloud (H2IOSC) project, in particular the development of an ontology for Heritage Science. Given the inherently multidisciplinary nature of Heritage Science, defining precise boundaries for the domain is a complex task that can hinder effective data organization and limit research potential. After providing a brief overview of the H2IOSC project, the paper delves into the key challenges faced in the ontology development. It further outlines the initial strategies employed to address these challenges, emphasizing the establishment of a permanent interdisciplinary group of Heritage subject-matter experts and the creation of the H-SeTIS online database for surveying existing semantic resources in the Heritage field. The paper also highlights future developments and critical considerations for advancing the project, ensuring its continued relevance and impact and promotes the adoption of good practices for the development of semantic artefacts in the Heritage domain.