artifact
n. countablen. an object made by humans, especially one with historical or cultural value. In computing, it can also mean a file or image produced by a process.
n. an object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or historical interest. In technical contexts, it refers to a by-product or anomaly produced by a process, such as a digital file or a visual distortion.
The museum displays ancient artifacts from the Roman Empire.
Archaeologists carefully cleaned the pottery shards to reveal the painted designs on the artifact.
The digital artifact in the photograph was not a ghost, but a compression error caused by saving the image too many times.
Alteration of artefact, from Italian artefatto, from Latin arte (“by skill”) (ablative of ars (“art”)) + factum (“thing made”) (from facio (“to make, do”)).