Artefacttypes

Artefacttypes is a term used in museum informatics and archaeology to refer to standardized categories used to classify artefacts within a collection or data model. An artefacttype defines a class of objects that share core characteristics such as function, manufacture, material, or cultural context and serves as a metadata element that supports organization, retrieval, and analysis.

In practice, artefacttypes are typically implemented as a controlled vocabulary or enumerated list with unique identifiers, preferred labels, synonyms, definitions, and a hierarchical structure that links broader and narrower types. They enable consistent description across records, reducing ambiguity when artefacts are compared or aggregated.

Common examples include ceramic vessel, lithic implement, metal tool, bead, figurine, bone pin, and glass shard. More specific terms may be created to reflect local collections or research questions, while mappings to broader types allow cross-institution comparison.

Development and governance of artefacttypes usually involve domain analysis, examination of reference collections, review of scholarly literature, and consensus among curators, archaeologists, and collection managers. Ongoing maintenance includes versioning, governance policies, and periodic recalibration to reflect new research.

Artefacttypes interact with cataloging standards and data models. They are often encoded in metadata schemas and linked data vocabularies to support interoperability, data exchange, and faceted search. They also enable analytics on artefact assemblages, provenance studies, and durable access to collections over time.

See also: artefact, artifact, taxonomy, controlled vocabulary, metadata, CIDOC CRM, ontology.