Introduction

Heriverse – an acronym of Heritage Science Metaverse – is a concrete demonstration of how the latest European guidelines for cultural heritage can be translated into an operational environment already accessible to researchers, institutions, and professionals in the sector. Born as a “vertical pilot” within the Italian H2IOSC project, Heriverse combines three-dimensional exploration of objects and sites with a robust knowledge graph, addressing crucial issues such as multitemporality, traceability of data provenance, and scientific collaboration in an integrated manner.

A distinctive element of the platform is the semantic framework based on CIDOC-CRM, enhanced by the CIDOC-s3D extension and a data model formalized in JSON. This model, through the Python s3Dgraphy library, ensures interoperability and documentation rigor even for advanced 3D representations. This architecture, designed to power the future European Common Semantic Framework, allows for the connection of heterogeneous databases (from archaeological surveys to sensor surveys) while maintaining transparency along the entire information chain.

In this way, Heriverse transcends the traditional “black box” of three-dimensional models, making the scientific origin of each data immediately accessible and fostering the convergence of academic publications, digital twins, and open data. The platform thus serves as a key hub for the Italian Digilab, promoting the sharing and dissemination of knowledge across the broader European cultural heritage ecosystem.

Main features

  • 3D Scene Viewer:

    • View models organized by time period

    • Activating multiple graphs at once

    • Visualize the knowledge graph directly in the scene

    • Exploring the scene in VR

  • Changing the composition of the graph:

    • Semantic enrichment by resources from different sources

    • Nodes and relations creation

    • Using the Shelf as a collection point for multimedia resources (local or remote) that can be integrated into existing graphs

    • Export the scene to modify it with external tools and then import it into the platform

  • Collaborative mode:

    • Starting a shared work session

    • Communication via voice and/or text chat

    • Screen sharing capability

This manual guides the user step by step in using the platform, illustrating each feature in a practical way.