In
archaeology, an
artifact or
artefact is any
object made or modified by a human
culture, and often one later recovered by some archaeological endeavor. Examples include
stone tools such as
projectile points,
pottery vessels, metal objects such as buttons or guns, and items of personal adornment such as
jewellery and clothing. Other examples include
bone that show signs of human modification, fire cracked rocks from a
hearth or plant material used for food.
The study of these objects is an important part of the field of archaeology, although the degree to which they represent the social groupings that created them is a subject over which archaeological theoreticians argue. Focusing on the artifact alone can produce very intensive and enlightening work on the object itself but can ignore surrounding factors which may shed further light on the manufacturing society. Traditional museums are often criticised for being too artifact-led, that is by displaying items without any contextual information about their purpose or the people who made them.
Artifacts can come from any archaeological context or source such as
Artifacts are distinguished from the main body of the archaeological record such as stratigraphic features, which are nonportable remains of human activity, such as hearths, roads, or deposits and remains, and from biofacts or ecofacts, which are objects of archaeological interest made by other organisms, such as seeds or animal bone.
