Artifacts are products of a society, intentionally created by someone in that society. They can be ancient or recent, and at least 25 years old. Artifacts help create images of what a society thought was important and what its main trades or jobs were. Simple everyday things can communicate the most about the products of a culture.
An artifact can have numerous definitions. In anthropology and history, the typical definition is that it is a product of a society, usually intentionally created by someone in that society. These can be ancient things, like Ming vases or soapstone carvings, or they can be quite recent. They can be defined as being at least 25 years old, although people may be used to thinking of them as much older and from societies of the distant past.
Ancient artifacts are not to be confused with fossils. Finding dinosaur bones or the skull of a woolly mammoth isn’t really finding a company’s product. On the other hand, a carefully sculpted weapon made from a woolly mammoth tusk would be an incredibly exciting artifact and find. This definition, however, can be a bit confusing. For example, an archaeologist might wonder if a grain of rice in an unearthed cave is the product of society or an accident. Clearly if it was a rice growing company, it is a production of that company instead of just a random wild grain of rice.
Likewise, there’s a difference between finding people’s bones and finding the things they’re buried with. Bones aren’t exactly artifacts, but the things that go with them are, including any type of coffin, clothing, jewelry, or other thing society deemed necessary for burial. Conversely, if there was a decoration on the body, such as a filled tooth, that too could be considered an artifact, as it was clearly man-made and a product of society.
Artifacts help create images of what a society thought was important and what its main trades or jobs were. Images are often incomplete, and new finds from the same society can completely change how historians or archaeologists view it. A simple tool made from bone or a specific type of metal could completely change the way people look at ancient or prehistoric societies and provide more insight into the human condition long ago in various parts of the world.
Today’s society often has a very romantic view of archaeology, perhaps influenced by films such as the Indiana Jones series in which the characters are always looking for fantastic objects. While most people may not believe such items have magical powers, they can expect them to be beautiful, in gleaming gold or elaborately carved. While archeology has unearthed its share of beautiful objects from past cultures, many times it’s the simple everyday things that communicate the most about the products of a culture. People in America regularly stumble upon Indian arrowheads, but don’t necessarily see them as important artifacts of the many Native American groups that once thrived in North America.
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