fragmentary
adj.made up of many small, separate pieces that do not form a complete whole. You use this to describe things like broken rocks or incomplete information.
adj.consisting of separate, disconnected parts that do not form a complete whole. Often used to describe geological formations or historical records that are incomplete.
“The geologist studied the fragmentary remains of the ancient volcano.”
“Archaeologists found fragmentary evidence of the lost civilization, including a few broken pottery shards and a single stone tablet.”
“The report was based on fragmentary data collected over several decades, making it difficult for the researchers to draw a definitive conclusion about the site's history.”
“Translating even fragmentary texts is extremely valuable because precious few books from that period survive intact.”
From fragment + -ary.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.