artefact
Noun 1. artefact - a man-made object taken as a whole

An important word in archaeology, used for instance to distinguish stone tools made by primitive humans, from
stones not shaped by humans.

In looking a pathology slides, peculiar things may be seen
that were caused by mishandling of tissue in processing it.
I remember a jerk in pathology who claimed there were things
moving in the field he was looking at. The asshole had used
his oil immersion lens (a no-no!) and it was pressing on the
coverslip, and breaking up the specimen embedded in Canada balsam.
I remember another asshole in hospital lab on Leyte, who was diagnosing malaria in ever preparation he looked at.
All he was seeing was precipitated stain. After I filtered his stains for him, he didn't see any more "malaria parasites".