CIDOC CRM Special Interest Group (2025) Definition of the CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model, Version 7.3.1. Edited by C. Bekiari, G. Bruseker, E. Canning, M. Doerr, P. Michon, C.-E. Ore, S. Stead and A. Velios. Paris: ICOM CIDOC.


CIDOC CRM constructs a formal semantic framework for integrating heterogeneous cultural-heritage information. Its iconic contribution is an event-centred ontology in which objects, actors, places, time-spans, productions, modifications and acts of attribution can be linked without reducing institutional differences to one database schema. The theoretical contribution lies in treating cultural knowledge as a network of historical relations rather than a collection of isolated records. Methodologically, the model defines classes, properties, inheritance rules, quantifiers and modelling principles designed for extensibility, minimality and semantic interoperability. The conceptual operation is relational formalisation: local descriptions are translated into a shared conceptual structure while their specific content remains intact. The wider bridge reaches museum documentation, archival science, ontology engineering and digital historiography. CIDOC CRM demonstrates that interoperability depends less on identical vocabularies than on a common grammar capable of representing events, uncertainty, attribution and temporal transformation.