The Living Provenance Method — Surface Topography Reference (Light and Relic)

This dataset documents a reference implementation of the surface-topography method used in Lightand Relic, where micro-structural surface traces function not as condition indicators but as a digitalfingerprint of an artefact. The micro-traces referenced here are not visible under normal viewingconditions; they become perceptible only through controlled raking LED illumination and macrofocus-stacking. A nine-segment imaging workflow (40 frames per segment) using the Sony α7 IV and the FE 90mmMacro lens resulted in a panoramic master image from which 114 micro-trace vectors weremanually extracted and encoded as (x1, y1, x2, y2) coordinate pairs. This identity matrix is notstatic: new traces may be added over time as the artefact continues to live, travel, and accumulatehistory. New traces do not replace former ones; they extend the surface biography whilepreserving the original reference structure. This is a methodological reference dataset. The same method will be applied to the ArknightShard relic in a later archival phase; this dataset does not represent the relic’s surface identityrecord itself.