artifactsthat

Artifactsthat is a neologism used in some online discussions and informal scholarly writing to describe a category of artifacts that are themselves informative about the conditions under which they were produced, preserved, or interpreted. The term is not established in any single discipline and does not refer to a fixed methodology; rather, it functions as a heuristic for considering artifacts as conveyors of contextual information rather than as sole objects of study.

In archaeology, artifactsthat might refer to artifacts bearing production marks, wear patterns, or situational traces that reveal manufacturing processes, usage, or environment. In digital contexts, it can describe data artifacts—unintended patterns created by sampling, compression, or storage—that reveal biases in collection or processing. In museums and archives, artifactsthat may reference metadata, provenance gaps, or digitization artifacts that illuminate curation decisions and institutional practices.

Because the term is informal, its usage varies, and critics argue that it can obscure precise definitions. Practitioners typically apply artifactsthat as a prompt to examine how artifacts acquire meaning through relationships with observers, repositories, and interpretive frameworks rather than through isolated examination alone.

See also: artifact, data artifact, taphonomy, archival theory, digital humanities.