They were primitive artifacts, for the most part, but they included shards of pottery which could only have been cast in fire.

Tools like this, or the still more primitive artifacts of the Runners, had kept her alive for months.

"Yang also prides himself on his knowledge of primitive artifacts, and in that respect his pride is justified," Master Li said.

The long, slender leaves supplied food; the tough stalks were the raw material for their primitive artifacts.

"I didn't know you were studying primitive artifacts."

These primitive artifacts became evident in his works, which began to take on a more imaginative style, like landscapes seen from a bird's eye view, exotic birds and stylised forms.

Scientists now searched for the atom or the particle; sociologists and anthropologists reverted to primeval societies or primitive artifacts.

For example, his 1955 encounter in Mexico with primitive Pre-Columbian artifacts and architecture radically reoriented his art.

Bizarre to see them grouped around such a primitive bloodstained artifact, he thought.

It looked squat and ugly to him now, a primitive artifact from a primitive world.