What is an artifact?

In cultural studies, an artifact is understood asan object created by the hands of a person, having an important socio-cultural significance, serving as a means of communication, a source of information about a particular cultural environment. It can be, for example, weapons, decoration, a religious object, a book and so on.

Let us consider in more detail what is an artifact in specific spheres of use of this word:

In archeology, an artifact refers to any object found during excavation, which was created by a person or underwent a significant transformation on his part.
In business terminology, an artifact means a product of collective creativity. For example, it could be a media presentation of a new product or a drawing, a document, and so on.
In ordinary spoken language this termis used to designate (often in the ironic sense) of a thing of great importance, high value. For example, a friend who adores his new tablet, you can ask: "What new uploaded into your precious artifact?".
In computer games, artifacts are called things with special characteristics (often magical), and therefore it is extremely important to get the player.
In scientific studies, artifacts are the consequences of an intentional or accidental impact of the experimenter on the course of an experiment.

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