You're not alone there. I swear, there are times when you're following one artifact and you're suddenly pointed in the direction of a totally different one. And it can be really frustrating (especially when you don't have flight, and you're in a dig site that isn't easy to get around in) to dig up an artifact-- only to be sent back to where you started, to get the next one.

Why didn't it direct me to that one while I was there before?

I've also discovered that the Red survey light means just 'not close to here' and the direction it points is very vague... you could go 90 degrees left or right and get to your target quicker. Yellow is the first reliable color ;)

because as far as it's concerned there is only one cluster of fragments at a time. it's not pointing you to all three clusters of fragments from the start. it directs you to ONE and once you collect that one (not just dig it up) it will then direct you to the next.

so think of it as rng, because i'm sure that's what it is anyway. there's x number of spawn points in a dig site. when the site opens up, rng picks one spawn point. no matter where you start in the dig site, you're pointed to that point. once you dig it up, rng spawns the next and after it is dug up it spawns the third. that means all three clusters of fragments could be in one spot (as someone who has been searching for the jar and has dug up a whole lot of crap i can tell you this happens) or all three could be on different edges of the site. random is random, even if it is a pain.

@tatsumasa yes its pretty obvious this is how it works... my comment was about hoping they'd CHANGE that so it wouldn't be such an RNG as to where your next frag is within a digsite!

The fun part is when you find one artifact, do a Survey, and find another artifact in the exact same spot... then Survey, and find the THIRD artifact in the same spot. :D

Get the S.A.L. addon. It will show a clear visual representation of the green, yellow, and red "probability cones" from your survey, although in large digs the target may be beyond even the addon's red field.