A pottery sherd, a storage pit, and a burnt grain can all occur in the same square, but we don’t enter them into the same column. A sherd is an artifact; a pit is a feature; a grain is an eco-fact. Distinguishing between these types allows us to structure our field recording, cataloging, sampling, and interpretation in ways that respect the differences among these items.
An artifact is something made, shaped, or used by people. Examples include pottery sherds, stone tools, nails, glass beads, or carved bone. We can observe artifacts and take note of their material, shape, surface, state, and technology. An artifact’s find number will link it to its provenance (layer, coordinates, depth), photographs, and contextual recording sheet. While the artifact is important, we do not want to lose its context, since it helps us understand what the object was doing at that spot on the site.
A feature is evidence of some kind of human activity that generally cannot be extracted from the ground as a whole, portable object. Walls, fireplaces, post-holes, floors, ditches, burials, and pits are all features. Just because you see a dark circle in the ground, however, does not mean it is automatically a post-hole. Features have a defined outline, soil content, and relationship to the surrounding deposits, and they need to be recorded in these terms. We illustrate their plan with a plan drawing, and then we use a section drawing to show where it lies in relation to other deposits and which ones it cuts through.
Eco-facts are natural materials that may yield data relating to environmental change or human activity. Seeded plants, charcoal, pollen, animal bones, shells, and vegetal fiber are all natural materials that can become eco-facts in an archaeological excavation if they are not deliberately manufactured. Eco-facts, however, must be understood in context. Charred grain in a storage feature might be of interest as part of our knowledge about how people ate. If, however, a modern tree root intrudes into the same layer, we would not want to confuse this natural remnant with the original depositional event.
For example, take a photograph or plan of a mock-up excavation scene with several different materials. List what category you think each item belongs to and give a brief justification. A flaked flint blade could be classified as an artifact because it is clearly modified. A foundation trench could be classified as a feature because it cuts through the ground and cannot be removed whole. Animal bones could be classified as eco-facts unless they were clearly cut or modified, in which case further research would be required. When unsure, don’t guess, just record what you see.
Although the classifications above are helpful, they are not meant to replace observations. A bone could be an artifact if it was manufactured into a tool, but the unworked bone could still be an eco-fact. We do not record a pit full of soil as a feature; the soil is a deposit and the materials within it are still considered separate finds. Ask yourself: Was this thing made or altered? Is this thing integral to the site? Was this a natural material preserved as part of the archaeological context?