Datartefact

Collection

The Collection is the companion archive to the Datartefact book, bringing together the artifacts, instruments, recording systems, and material objects discussed throughout the project. Spanning early accounting devices, cartographic objects, textiles, scientific instruments, photography, sound recording, and computation, it explores how objects themselves can function as documents, or as systems of documents used to encode, store, measure, and transmit knowledge.

The collection can be browsed through a grid view or along a chronological timeline connecting artifacts across centuries and disciplines. Conceived as an expanding research archive, it will continue to grow over time alongside the development of the books.

Forma Urbis Romae
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Forma Urbis Romae

Author Roman cartographers under Septimius Severus

Date of creation 203 - 211

A marble map of ancient Rome, carved at a scale of about 1:240 and mounted on a wall of the Templum Pacis. Only 10-15% survives, in fragments now held at the Capitoline Museums.
Inka-Style Khipu
Chapter 5 · Deciphering Khipu

Inka-Style Khipu

Author Leland L. Locke's book

Date of creation 1300-1500

Inka-style khipu illustrating one of the most important book in the history of khipu deciphering, in which L. Locke determined khipu were numerical devices encoded in base 10. The book was published in 1912.
Monte Sierpe
Chapter 5 · Deciphering Khipu

Monte Sierpe "Band of Holes"

Author Chincha Kingdom & Inka Empire

Date of creation 1100-1600

Exceptional topographical site in Peru containing approximately 5,000 regularly spaced holes in the ground, used for goods exchange and accounting during the Inka Empire.
Flight of the Gull Bronze Model
Chapter 6 · Photography as Autographic Systems

Flight of the Gull Bronze Model

Author Etienne-Jules Marey

Date of creation 1870

A bronze model made in Italy from Marey's chronophotographic work analyzing the flight of birds.
Bulla (Clay Round Seal)
Chapter 1 · Mesopotamian Clay Tokens

Bulla (Clay Round Seal)

Author Sumerian agriculturalists

Date of creation 3700 BCE - 3000 BCE

Clay envelop in which the accounting tokens were initially placed, then only imprinted on.
Qin Bronze Weight (Quán 权)
Chapter 4 · Analog Instruments and the State

Qin Bronze Weight (Quán 权)

Author Qin dynasty imperial government

Date of creation 221 BCE

A bronze weight cast after Qin Shi Huang's unification of China, inscribed with the imperial edict standardizing weights across the empire. Used with a balance scale for trade and taxation.
Nilometer
Chapter 4 · Analog Instruments and the State

Nilometer

Author Civil engineers of Ancient Egypt

Date of creation 2000 BCE - 1900

A specific type of architecture that was built along the Nile for the Egyptian authorities to monitor the level and turbidity of the river.
Aster
Chapter 6 · Photography as Autographic Systems

Aster

Author Grégoire Eloy

Date of creation 2021

The Aster books show a fraction of the 1 million sattelite pictures taken by scientists for a global study on glaciers into 4,000 printed volumes.
Paracas Polychrome Mantle
Chapter 3 · Informative Textiles

Paracas Polychrome Mantle

Author Nazca Culture (central Andes)

Date of creation 100–300

Ceremonial Paracas mantle encoding territorial, genealogical, and possibly calendrical information.
Ishango Bone
Chapter 0 · How Tallying Began

Ishango Bone

Author Later Stone Age toolmakers

Date of creation 20000 BCE

A baboon fibula bearing three columns of notches in varying groupings, found at Ishango, Democratic Republic of Congo. Its function remains debated — proposed readings range from a simple tally to a lunar calendar or an early arithmetic tool.
Mississippi Embroidered Map
Chapter 3 · Informative Textiles

Mississippi Embroidered Map

Author Anne Lacambre

Date of creation 2023

Reproduced from an ancient atlas for the visually impaired, the map is a tactile, white on white embroidered map of the Mississippi river.
Jaquard Loom Punched Cards
Chapter 8 · Perforated Paper and Machines

Jaquard Loom Punched Cards

Author Joseph Marie Jacquard

Date of creation 1805

Programmable paper cards linked in sequences to control Jacquard looms, allowing complex textile patterns to be mechanically encoded, stored, and reproduced.
Mesopotamian Clay Tokens
Chapter 1 · Mesopotamian Clay Tokens

Mesopotamian Clay Tokens

Author Sumerian agriculturalists

Date of creation 10 000 BCE - 3000 BCE

Accounting tokens that were used for farming goods exchange and accounting in Mesopotamia. The tokens were used for thousands of years and led to the invention of cuneiform writing.
Qin Bronze Volume Measure (Shēng 升)
Chapter 4 · Analog Instruments and the State

Qin Bronze Volume Measure (Shēng 升)

Author State of Qin, standardized under Qin Shi Huang

Date of creation 344 BCE - 221 BCE

A rectangular bronze pan with a handle, cast as a standard unit of volume. The type originates with Shang Yang's 344 BCE reform and was extended empire-wide under Qin Shi Huang's 221 BCE unification edict, alongside standardized weights and currency.
Maikop Vessel
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Maikop Vessel

Author Maikop culture artisans

Date of creation 3700 BCE - 3000 BCE

A silver vessel engraved with a naturalistic landscape — mountains, rivers, and animals including lions and panthers — widely interpreted as a depiction of the North Caucasus region as seen from the north. Found in the Maikop kurgan, Adygeya Republic (former Kuban region), Russia. Height 9.6 cm.
Lebombo Bone
Chapter 0 · How Tallying Began

Lebombo Bone

Author Middle Stone Age toolmakers

Date of creation 44000 BCE - 42000 BCE

A baboon fibula from Border Cave, in the Lebombo Mountains on the South Africa–Eswatini border, with twenty-nine surviving notches along one edge. Widely read as a tally stick.
Crochet Topography
Chapter 3 · Informative Textiles

Crochet Topography

Author Noriko Takahama

Date of creation 2026

The artist has created a method to retrieve elevation data and transform them into printed pattern, then used to crochet specific topographies.
A Number Between Zero and One
Chapter 10 · Computing and Sculpting Data

A Number Between Zero and One

Author Siah Armajani

Date of creation 1969

A Number Between Zero and One is a conceptual sculpture by Iranian-American artist Siah Armajani, consisting of a stack of paper printouts of an imaginary number—10^-205,714,079—one requiring 25,974 sheets and twenty-eight hours to print.
Korean Rain Gauge Ch'ŭgugi
Chapter 4 · Analog Instruments and the State

Korean Rain Gauge Ch'ŭgugi

Author Joseon kingdom's Research Institute of Astronomy Geography Calendar and Weather

Date of creation 1441

Known as the 'most ancient rain gauge in the world', the Korean rain gauge system was one of the first state-wide rain measuring system.
Mattang
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Mattang

Author Marshallese navigators

Date of creation 1800-1950

The mattang is an abstract stick chart presentation of how swells refract around an island and meet in a series of nodes. They were used a teaching and mnemonic devices, not for navigation.
Chauvet Cave Palm-Print Panel (Grand Panneau des Points-Paumes)
Chapter 0 · How Tallying Began

Chauvet Cave Palm-Print Panel (Grand Panneau des Points-Paumes)

Author Aurignacian cave visitors

Date of creation 34000 BCE

Roughly 100 ochre palm-prints applied by hand in the Brunel Chamber of Chauvet cave, forming a large shape suggestive of a herbivore. Oliver Schlaudt cites the panel's repetition of an identical gesture as a case where repeated mark-making can drift toward tokenization, independent of any single mark's meaning.
Harappan Cubical Weights
Chapter 4 · Analog Instruments and the State

Harappan Cubical Weights

Author Indus Valley Civilization artisans

Date of creation 2600 BCE - 1900 BCE

Cubical weights, mostly made of chert, used across Indus Valley settlements to standardize trade and taxation. They follow a strict binary ratio system (1:2:4:8:16...), consistent across a vast territory.
Westtown Samplers
Chapter 3 · Informative Textiles

Westtown Samplers

Author Westtown School - by Girls in Sewing Class

Date of creation 1800-1830

Silk globes made by young girls who attended sewing classes at the Westtown School in Pennsylvania, USA.
Les Pradelles Hyena Femur
Chapter 0 · How Tallying Began

Les Pradelles Hyena Femur

Author Neanderthals

Date of creation 72000 BCE - 60000 BCE

A fragment of hyena femur from Les Pradelles, southwestern France, bearing nine deep, roughly parallel incisions. Analysis by Francesco d'Errico and colleagues reads the marks as a confirmed case of numerical notation, made in a single session.
Inequalities Quipus
Chapter 5 · Deciphering Khipu

Inequalities Quipus

Author Ewa Tuteja

Date of creation 2021

The project compares through two inca-style quipus, the well-being of Latin America and Scandinavia. It encodes gendered data from the OECD Better Life Index.
Staring At Empty Space
Chapter 6 · Photography as Autographic Systems

Staring At Empty Space

Author Lea Wurthmann

Date of creation 2023

A physical installation that showcases the 352 electromagnetic captures required by NASA to produce the 1995 Deep Space image.
Ammassalik Coastline Sculpture
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Ammassalik Coastline Sculpture

Author Kunit fra Umivik (Inuit hunter from Greenland)

Date of creation 1885

A sculpted guide to a stretch of coast north of Ammassalik, made by a local hunter to explain navigation to the Danish expedition captain Gustav Holm, who later wrote his deep despise for Inuit geographical artefacts.
Light Sculptures: Matter of Impermanence
Chapter 6 · Photography as Autographic Systems

Light Sculptures: Matter of Impermanence

Author Dexter Callender III

Date of creation 2024

Glass sculptures designed from photographic captures of light patterns moving through architecture during the day, from a selection of buildings in Boston (USA).
Yupana
Chapter 5 · Deciphering Khipu

Yupana

Author Inka Empire artisans

Date of creation 1400 - 1532

An Inka counting board, used alongside the khipu for arithmetic — the yupana computed, while the khipu recorded the result. Based on a 17th-century drawing by the chronicler Huaman Poma, later interpreted by Erland Nordenskiöld and Henry Wassén as a grid in which pebbles or grains of maize, placed in different squares, represented different values depending on their position.
Sayhuite Monolith
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Sayhuite Monolith

Author Inka Empire artisans

Date of creation 1400 - 1532

A carved granite boulder near Abancay, Peru, covered with over 200 reliefs depicting terraces, canals, rivers, and animals. Some researchers read it as a topographic model used to plan and test irrigation systems.
Architecture of Return, Escape (American Museum of Natural History)
Chapter 2 · Material Geographies

Architecture of Return, Escape (American Museum of Natural History)

Author Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/Unangax̂)

Date of creation 2021

A hide painting referencing the floor plan of the American Museum of Natural History, part of a series mapping escape routes for Indigenous remains and objects held in non-Indigenous institutions, back to their home communities.