Quick answer: official Sandustry sources describe Artifacts as powerful objects left behind by an ancient civilization and as one of the game's main exploration targets. The Steam page says you seek them out in the destructible world, the Beginner's Guide says you can prioritize hunting them and spend resources to unlock access to their benefits, and the Locator research path later lets you scan for hidden alien artifacts with Voidjuice.
Artifacts are clearly part of Sandustry's exploration progression, but the official materials available here are stronger on role and discovery than on exact artifact catalog details.
The Beginner's Guide explicitly frames artifact hunting as one of the routes you can prioritize instead of only pushing factory throughput first.
The Steam page places artifacts in the deeper underground mystery loop. In practice, that makes visibility, excavation tools, and safe travel part of artifact hunting.
The Research page says the Locator can be filled with Voidjuice to scan for hidden alien artifacts, which is the clearest official search tool currently documented.
Official sources tie artifacts to benefits, ancient civilization secrets, and later discovery tools. That is enough to treat them as meaningful exploration progression, not just collectibles.
The current official sources do not provide a complete public list of artifact types, exact spawn rules, or a proven optimal hunt route.
Official materials place Artifacts in the deeper exploration layer of the world rather than in the surface starter loop. The Steam page and Beginner's Guide both frame them as something you hunt for while pushing underground progression.
The official Research page says the Locator can be filled with Voidjuice to scan for hidden alien artifacts. That makes the Locator the clearest documented late search tool.
Source note: This recommendation is source-based, not an independently benchmarked build.
Official source