diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index fe00ca4..48b2ec3 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -222,3 +222,6 @@ graphify-out/
 
 # ADR-013 §10 golden fixture: canonical bytes, must be tracked despite *.zip/*.parquet rules
 !tests/fixtures/wire_contract/*
+
+# #126 historical characterization golden (small, must be tracked despite *.parquet rule)
+!tests/fixtures/historical_golden/*
diff --git a/tests/fixtures/historical_golden/legacy_historical_slice.parquet b/tests/fixtures/historical_golden/legacy_historical_slice.parquet
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..093d99e
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/fixtures/historical_golden/legacy_historical_slice.parquet differ
diff --git a/tests/test_historical_parity.py b/tests/test_historical_parity.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5512435
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_historical_parity.py
@@ -0,0 +1,66 @@
+"""Reader-level parity oracle for the historical artifact (#126, Feathers
+amendment): the characterization golden captures what the LEGACY pandas chain
+produced from a real 2-month × 200-cell slice, and every future builder must
+yield the same frame AS SEEN THROUGH FAOAPI'S READER — not the same bytes.
+
+Reader semantics mirrored from views-faoapi (`dataset_service.py:255-334`,
+`handlers.py:1365-1417`): read parquet; if no MultiIndex, set
+``["month_id", "priogrid_id"|"priogrid_gid"]``; require the 9 metadata columns
+present and non-null; historical targets = every remaining column.
+
+Captured truth worth naming: the legacy chain would have shipped two junk
+columns (``row``, ``col`` — datafactory grid coordinates) which faoapi's
+auto-detect would have served as bogus "targets". The frame-native builder
+drops them deliberately; the parity comparison is therefore over the REAL
+targets + metadata, and a dedicated test pins the junk exclusion.
+"""
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pyarrow.parquet as pq
+
+from views_postprocessing.unfao.gaul_schema import METADATA_COLS
+
+GOLDEN = Path(__file__).resolve().parent / "fixtures" / "historical_golden" / "legacy_historical_slice.parquet"
+REAL_TARGETS = ["lr_ged_sb", "lr_ged_ns", "lr_ged_os"]
+_INDEX_CANDIDATES = ("priogrid_id", "priogrid_gid")
+
+
+def reader_view(path) -> dict:
+    """faoapi's reader semantics, pandas-free: returns {(month, gid): {col: value}}
+    for target+metadata columns, plus the detected target list."""
+    table = pq.read_table(path)
+    names = set(table.column_names)
+    id_col = next((c for c in _INDEX_CANDIDATES if c in names), None)
+    assert "month_id" in names and id_col, f"index columns missing: {sorted(names)}"
+    missing = [c for c in METADATA_COLS if c not in names]
+    assert not missing, f"metadata columns missing: {missing}"
+    targets = [c for c in table.column_names if c not in {"month_id", *_INDEX_CANDIDATES, *METADATA_COLS}]
+    rows = table.to_pylist()
+    view = {
+        (r["month_id"], r[id_col]): {c: r[c] for c in (*targets, *METADATA_COLS)}
+        for r in rows
+    }
+    return {"targets": targets, "rows": view}
+
+
+def test_golden_passes_reader_semantics():
+    view = reader_view(GOLDEN)
+    assert len(view["rows"]) == 400  # 2 months × 200 cells
+    # the legacy chain's auto-detected targets include the junk row/col columns —
+    # the captured hazard the frame-native builder must NOT reproduce
+    assert set(view["targets"]) == {*REAL_TARGETS, "row", "col"}
+
+
+def test_golden_metadata_is_complete_and_nonnull():
+    view = reader_view(GOLDEN)
+    for key, cols in view["rows"].items():
+        for meta in METADATA_COLS:
+            assert cols[meta] is not None and cols[meta] == cols[meta], (key, meta)
+
+
+def test_golden_carries_real_values():
+    view = reader_view(GOLDEN)
+    # spot sanity: coordinates are real half-degree grid values
+    some = next(iter(view["rows"].values()))
+    assert isinstance(some["pg_xcoord"], float) and abs(some["pg_xcoord"]) <= 180.0