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The article discusses the problem of fragmentary evidence and takes as its starting point the paradoxical relationship between completeness and incompleteness. The author proposes a definition of the fragment by regarding it as an artefact, e. g. an object produced to serve as a tool and to fulfil a particular function. In respect of questions raised in connection with textual criticism and philology, this perspective allows scholars dealing with text fragments to address the fragment – regardless of what sort – as a medium and as part of a functional entity, which calls for completeness.