A Common Reference Architecture for Place Through Time

This working paper sets out the conceptual basis for a Common Reference Architecture for Place Through Time. It proposes that a stable numerical reference to ground can provide a common point against which changing claims, evidence, interpretations and relations are attached, compared and interrogated through time. The architecture separates the identity of a spatial referent from everything asserted about it, allowing different disciplines, institutions and communities to address the same ground without requiring a common methodology, authority or worldview. The working framework uses the H3 global hexagonal indexing system at a declared resolution as a practical, machine-readable spatial reference. H3 is treated as the mechanism rather than the philosophy: the reference provides an address, while attributable claims retain their authorship, provenance, method, temporal scope and evidential basis. The paper considers claim preservation, spatial composability, relations between grounds, and the distinction between the inherent durability of a derived reference and the stewardship required to preserve an accumulated record. This is a conceptual working note published for testing, challenge and further development. Terminology, claim specification, implementation and stewardship remain open to refinement.