While the study of artefacts is one of the core topics of some humanities disciplines, other humanities and social science disciplines have only recently begun to (re)focus on artefacts and their embedding in changing social and historical contexts. The unique combination of empirical-descriptive and systematic-normative expertise on artefacts available at the University of Münster makes it possible to focus on new perspectives: Thus, the different ways in which time and artefacts relate to each other and mutually influence and shape each other are examined from different disciplinary perspectives. Furthermore, artefacts are understood as material and immaterial entities, contrary to the prevailing tendency in the humanities to equate artefacts with material objects or ‘things’.