When is a stone a artifact?

Question

When is a stone a artifact?

Answer 1

A stone is an artifact if it was once wielded as a tool by ancient humans. It is NOT a fossil as stated above as an artifact by definition is something human-made or at least altered by human

Answer 2

When it's really old and very rusty. Maybe found in the desert or something

Answer 3

When someone has modified it.

Answer 4

When it conveys information about past human behavior.  

In other words - when it has been made, moved, or modified by people.  

Answer 5

when it has visible remnants of life in it ( a fossel or a foot print, an impression of a woven fabric....)

Answer 6

When it has been modified for use by a human.

The first stone tools were unmodified rocks. Later pebble tools, then hand axes and finally projectile points were developed. These are all artifacts.

Stone can also be ground, pecked and polished for various uses.

There's a saying "Love is fleeting, Stone tools last forever." As most other artifacts decay, stone tools are often the only evidence we have about a prehistoric people.

Answer 7

artifacts are objects made by humans so a stone would be an artifact when it is made into something else like a bowl.

Answer 8

When it's been altered in some way, to convey a message, or to represent a type of tool...

Answer 9

As the other answers ahead of me have said, when it either contains fossilized forms and/or material, or when it has been modified by human craftwork in some way.

However, it could also be considered an artifact, without any fossilization or modification, if it was known to have had some significance to a past culture.  

For instance, the ancient Israelites once had a stone that they believed Ezekiel had used as a pillow when he had his famous dream about the wheels in the sky.

The British isles had a stone that they called the "Stone of Scone" upon which the king had to sit or stand at some point in the coronation ceremony in order to be legitimately recognized as the rightful and proper king.  This stone was stolen back and forth between the various political factions of the British isles (Ireland, England and Scotland) for centuries.

So, a plain unfossilized and unmodified stone could also be an artifact if it had some ritualistic significance to the culture among whose other artifacts it is found.

Answer 10

A stone is considered an artifact when it has verifiable remnants of alterations made...consider a chert projectile point or a ground stone implement such as an ax, adz, plowshare, or other tool made and used by humans.  

If it does not bear marks of purposeful alteration, but is found in context with human activities, it is commonly referred to as a "geofact".  Yes, that's a technical term.  Geofacts may be something as simple as cracked stones from a fire pit, which were not purposefully altered, but were altered by human use.  Or hammer stones, indirectly marked by human activities, may be considered such.