ARCHITECTURE IN

PAKISTAN

ARTIFACT

SALMAN AHMAD
2K18-ARCH-16

SUBMITTED TO: SIR

ISHFAQ AHMAD
 ARTIFACT
 An object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or
historical interest.
 Something observed in a scientific investigation or experiment that
is not naturally present but occurs as a result of the preparative or
investigative procedure

CULTURAL ARTIFACT
  A cultural artifact, or cultural artefact (see American and British
English spelling differences), is a term used in the social sciences,
particularly anthropology, ethnology and sociology for anything
created by humans which gives information about the culture of its
creator and users
 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
 In an anthropological context: a 17th-century lathe, a piece
of faience, or a television each provides a wealth of information
about the time in which they were manufactured and used.
 Cultural artifacts, whether ancient or current, have a significance
because they offer an insight into: technological processes,
economic development and social structure, among other
attributes.
CLASSIFICATION
The philosopher Marx W Wartofsky  categorised artifacts as follows:
 primary artifacts: used in production (such as a hammer, a fork, a
lamp or a camera);
 secondary artifacts: relating to primary artifacts (such as a user-
manual for a camera);
 tertiary artifacts: representations of secondary artifacts (such as a
picture of a user-manual for a camera).
Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have a
physical form (for example virtual artifact), nor to be of historical value
(items created seconds ago can be classified as social artifacts).
sindhi-ajrak-pattern
Pakistan Articraft
 Pottery
 An artifact 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.
  In archaeology, the word has become a term of particular nuance
and is defined as an object recovered by archaeological endeavor,
which may be a cultural artifact having cultural interest.
 Artifact is the general term used in archaeology, while in museums
the equivalent general term is normally "object", and in art
history perhaps artwork or a more specific term such as "carving".
The same item may be called all or any of these in different
contexts, and more specific terms will be used when talking about
individual objects, or groups of similar ones.
 Artifacts exist in many different forms and can sometimes be
confused with ecofacts and features; all three of these can
sometimes be found together at archaeological sites.
 They can also exist in different types of context depending on the
processes that have acted on them over time.
 A wide variety of analyses take place to analyze artifacts and
provide information on them.
 However, the process of analyzing artifacts through scientific
archaeology can be hindered by the looting and collecting of
artifacts, which sparks ethical debate
Artifacts can come from any archaeological context or source such as:
 Buried along with a body
 From any feature such as a midden or other domestic setting
 Votive offerings
 Hoards, such as in wells
 Examples include stone tools, pottery vessels, metal objects such
as weapons and items of personal adornment such
as buttons, jewelry and clothing.
 Bones that show signs of human modification are also examples.
 Natural objects, such as fire cracked rocks from a hearth or plant
material used for food, are classified by archaeologists as
ecofacts rather than as artifacts.
 Artifacts exist as a result of behavioral and transformational
processes.
 A behavioral process involves acquiring raw materials,
manufacturing these for a specific purpose and then discarding
after use.
 Transformational processes begin at the end of behavioral
processes; this is when the artifact is changed by nature and/or
humans after is has been deposited. Both of these processes are
significant factors in evaluating the context of an artifact.
 The context of an artifact can be broken into two categories:
primary context and secondary context.
 A matrix  is a physical setting within which an artifact exists, and a
provenience refers to a specific location within a matrix.
 When an artifact is found in the realm of primary context, the
matrix and provenience have not been changed by
transformational processes.
 However, the matrix and provenience are changed by
transformational processes when referring to secondary context.
Artifacts exist in both contexts, and this is taken into account
during the analysis of them.
 Artifacts are distinguished from stratigraphic features and ecofacts.
Stratigraphic feature are non-portable remains of human activity
that include hearths, roads , deposits, trenches and similar remains.
Ecofacts , also referred to as biofacts, are objects of archaeological
interest made by other organisms, such as seeds or animal bone.
 Natural objects that humans have moved but not changed are
called manuports. Examples include seashells moved inland or
rounded pebbles placed away from the water action that made
them.
 These distinctions are often blurred; 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 that could be
either crude artifacts or naturally occurring and happen to resemble
early objects made by early humans or Homo sapiens.
 It can be difficult to distinguish the differences between actual
man-made  lithic artifacts and geofacts  – naturally occurring
lithics that resemble man-made tools.
 It is possible to authenticate artifacts by examining the general
characteristics attributed to man-made tools and local
characteristics of the site.
 Artifacts, features and ecofacts can all be located together at sites.
 Sites may include different arrangements of the three; some might
include all of them while others might only include one or two.
 Sights can have clear boundaries in the form of walls and moats,
but this is not always the case. Sites can be distinguished through
categories, such as location and past functions.
 How artifacts exist at these sites can provide archaeological
insight. An example of this would be utilizing the position and
depth of buried artifacts to determine a chronological timeline for
past occurrences at the site.
 Modern archaeologists take care to distinguish material
culture from ethnicity , which is often more complex, as expressed
by Carrol Kramer in the dictum "pots are not people."
Mycenaean stirrup jar from Ras Shamra (Ugarit) Syria, 1400–1300 BC
A 2nd century AD Sarmatian-Parthian gold necklace and amulet from
the Black Sea region.
Curmsun Disc - Obverse, Jomsborg, 980s, Burial site of king Harald
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