Aspeech, document, or other artifact that was written, created, or recorded during the time period relevant to the topic your are exploring and researching is a:

Primary source

Explanation:

A primary source is an artifact, speech or document that was written, created or recorded during the time period relevant to the topic that you are studying.  Primary sources are particularly important because they provide an original source of information about the topic. Primary sources are different from secondary sources, which build on primary ones.