Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An artifact [a] or artefact (British English) is a general term for an item made or given shape by humans, such as a tool or a work of art, especially an object of archaeological interest. [1] In archaeology , the word has become a term of particular nuance; it is defined as an object recovered by archaeological endeavor, including cultural ...
Cultural artifact is a more generic term and should be considered with two words of similar, but narrower, nuance: it can include objects recovered from archaeological sites, i.e. archaeological artifacts, but can also include objects of modern or early-modern society, or social artifacts.
The age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale, as determined by some method of absolute dating, e.g. 10,000 BP or 1.9 mya. [1] absolute dating Ascertaining the age of an object with reference to a fixed and specific time scale (e.g. calendar years or radiocarbon years), as opposed to relative dating. [2] aerial archaeology
Artifact Creek, a stream in British Columbia, Canada; Artifact Ridge, a mountain ridge in British Columbia, Canada; Artifacting, a technique used on some older computers to generate color in monochrome modes by exploiting artifacts of analog television systems; Learning artifact (education), an object created by students during the course of ...
Archaeology stimulates interest in ancient objects, and people in search of artifacts or treasure cause damage to archaeological sites. The commercial and academic demand for artifacts contributes directly to the illicit antiquities trade. Smuggling of antiquities abroad to private collectors has caused great cultural and economic damage in ...
Ecofacts include both flora and fauna that provide insight into the way humans interacted with their surroundings and as such, animal remains such as bones represent another type of Ecofact. Animal remains have the potential to be both an ecofact and artifact and their classification is dependent on the context in which they may have been used.
The definition of the term is not always precise, and institutional definitions such as museum "Departments of Antiquities" often cover later periods, but in normal usage Gothic objects, for example, would not now be described as antiquities, though in 1700 they might well have been, as the cut-off date for antiquities has tended to retreat since the word was first found in English in 1513.
In studying a human culture, an anthropologist studies the material culture of the people in question as well as the people themselves and their interactions with others. To understand the culture in which an object is featured, an anthropologist looks at the object itself, its context, and the way that it was manufactured and used.