philosopher Marx W. Wartofsky categorized artifacts as follows:
* primary artifacts: used in production (such as a hammer, a fork, a lamp, or a camera);
* secondary artifacts: relating to primary artifacts (such as a user manual for a camera);
* tertiary artifacts: representations of secondary artifacts (such as a picture of a user manual for a camera).

Social artifacts, unlike archaeological artifacts, do not need to have a physical form (for example virtual artifact),