What is an artifact?
An artifact is any object that was created, modified, or even just used by a human being. It can be difficult to tell if a natural object, such as a stone, was used by a human being unless there are physical marks on it; however, its context will give us clues. Generally, the term artifact is applied to portable objects. Structures created or modified by humans that cannot easily be moved, such as buildings, walls, agricultural terraces, pits, and post holes, are called features. Please refer to our Glossary for more archaeological terms and definitions.
An artifact is any material made or modified by human activity. For example, these materials include pottery, projectile points (arrowheads, spear points, or stone knives), beads, shell necklaces, broken glass, bone or stone tools, flakes of flint or chert (waste by-products of tool production), etc. Artifacts also include items from the natural environment used by humans in some way – for example, animal bone, plant remains, and shells. Artifacts are also referred to as ‘material remains’, and other examples of this would be alterations or disturbances in the soil as a result of human activities, or the biological remains of the humans themselves. For example, campfires, storage pits, and postholes would fit in this category. A posthole is a hole where a post was placed for a house or other structure. In the Tennessee Valley, the wood posts themselves were not preserved due to the acidic and wet nature of the soil, although sometimes a small part of a post may survive if it was charre
