Everything about Artefact Archaeology totally explained
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's 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.
Natural objects which have been moved but not changed by humans are called
manuports. Examples would include seashells moved inland or rounded pebbles placed away from the water action that would have fashioned them.
These distinctions are often blurred; for instance, a bone removed from an animal carcass is a biofact, but a bone carved into a useful implement is an artifact. Similarly there can be debate over early stone objects which may be crude artifacts or which may be naturally occurring phenomena that only appear to have been used by humans.
Use of artifacts in archaeological analysis
Artifacts are often called "finds" when handled during archaeological
excavation. Artifacts are related to the archaeological record by their position defined by the
Archaeological context they're discovered in. This is important for
Seriation and relative dating analysis and is closely related to work post excavation with the use of a
Harris matrix created during excavation. An analysis of finds is often made during excavation for the purpose of spot dating, which is a process of assessing dates of contexts being excavated. It is used as a form of confirmation concerning
phasing and highlighting any potential for further discovery on a given site as it progresses. Spot dating tends to rely on pottery typology. This pottery dating analysis was pioneered by 19th century archaeologists such as
Georg Loeschcke. Apart from dating and supporting the process of excavation, artifacts lend themselves to a host of post excavation disciplines.
Further Information
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