artifact
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artifact
An object made by humans, especially one with archaeological, cultural, or historical significance.
Bei den Ausgrabungen wurde ein seltenes römisches Artefakt entdeckt.
A rare Roman artifact was discovered during the excavations.
The word is made up of the Latin words 'ars' (art) and 'factum' (made). An 'Artefakt' (artifact) is therefore literally something 'artificially made', which explains both meanings: a human-made object or an artificially created error in data.
Jedes Werkzeug aus der Steinzeit ist ein wertvolles Artefakt.
Every tool from the Stone Age is a valuable artifact.
You can recognize the meaning of 'Artefakt' (artifact) from the field. In archaeology and history, it means an object created by humans. In technology, medicine, or photography, it is an artificial disturbance or distortion in data or images.
Das Museum stellt verschiedene Artefakte aus der Bronzezeit aus.
The museum displays various artifacts from the Bronze Age.
In an archaeological context, 'Artefakt' (artifact) is often used with verbs such as 'entdecken' (to discover), 'ausgraben' (to excavate), 'konservieren' (to conserve), or 'datieren' (to date). It usually describes objects that provide insights into earlier cultures.
Archäologen datieren die gefundenen Artefakte auf die Eisenzeit.
Archaeologists date the artifacts that were found to the Iron Age.
In the technical sense, artifacts are unwanted side effects. For example, people speak of 'Bildartefakten' (image artifacts) in photography or 'Datenartefakten' (data artifacts) in science, which can arise from measurement errors.
Die Software hilft dabei, die Artefakte aus der alten Audioaufnahme zu entfernen.
The software helps remove the artifacts from the old audio recording.
mistake / error
'der Fehler' and 'das Artefakt' can both have to do with something being wrong in an image, system, or dataset. 'Fehler' is the more general word for a defect or a problem. 'Artefakt' is used more in technical, scientific, or medical contexts when an artificial distortion has occurred, for example because of a device or a method. The words can be confused because an artifact can look like an error. 'Artefakt' is more precise when it is clear that the noticeable area does not really belong to the object being examined, but was produced artificially.
Auf dem Röntgenbild war ein Artefakt zu sehen, das durch die Bewegung des Patienten entstanden ist.
An artifact was visible on the X-ray image, caused by the patient's movement.
Nach dem Update zeigte das Programm einen Fehler auf dem Bildschirm.
After the update, the program showed an error on the screen.