Artefactuele

Artefactuele is a term used in some academic and curatorial discussions to denote a cross-disciplinary approach to artifacts. It treats artefacts not only as isolated objects but as nodes within material cultures, social practices, and knowledge networks. The concept emphasizes the materiality of objects, their production and use, and the ways they accumulate meaning through time and context.

The field draws on archaeology, anthropology, museology, conservation science, and digital humanities. It seeks to classify artefacts, document their provenance, and analyze the networks of exchange, value, and interpretation that surround them. Artefactuele also considers digital artefacts and data objects as part of material culture, examining metadata, reconstruction, and virtual representations alongside physical items.

Historically, artefactuele emerged in the early 21st century as scholars sought integrated frameworks for studying objects across disciplines. While not yet codified as a formal discipline with universal standards, the term appears in museum catalogs, conference proceedings, and some peer-reviewed articles as a way to describe holistic artefact studies.

Common methods include typology and use-wear analysis, provenance research, conservation science, ethnographic fieldwork, 3D scanning, and digital curation. Critical perspectives address materiality, ethics, ownership, repatriation, and the politics of display.

Artefactuele informs curatorial practice, education, heritage management, and digital archiving, supporting more contextualized understandings of artifacts in both physical and virtual spaces. Related fields include material culture studies, archaeology, museology, and digital humanities.