I find the following description of Artin motives in [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motive_%28algebraic_geometry%29%23Tannakian_formalism_and_motivic_Galois_group). Since these seem to be quite related to number theory, I am interested to learn more in that context. I request the experts available in MO to provide me a reference which can be more useful to me than this terse description. Any comments and explanations also will be helpful. I apologize for asking a seemingly basic question; but I find it impossible to wade through the numerous references available on motives.


Fix a field $k$ and consider the functor
finite separable extensions $K$ of $k$ → finite sets with a (continuous) action of the absolute Galois group of $k$
which maps $K$ to the (finite) set of embeddings of $K$ into an algebraic closure of $k$. In Galois theory this functor is shown to be an equivalence of categories. Notice that fields are $0$-dimensional. Motives of this kind are called Artin motives. By $\mathbb Q$-linearizing the above objects, another way of expressing the above is to say that Artin motives are equivalent to finite $\mathbb Q$-vector spaces together with an action of the Galois group.


I have some idea of what are pure motives and mixed motives, in the context of algebraic varieties. What I exactly have in mind is to understand the modern statement of equivariant Tamagawa number conjecture. This would appear to be the simplest instance to keep in mind, if I go ahead.



References for Artin motives
André's book is the main reference for the "yoga" of motives. You'll find a description of Artin motives in the Voevodsky formalism in 


Beilinson and Vologodsky - <http://www.math.uiuc.edu/K-theory/0832/>


Wildehaus - <http://www.math.uiuc.edu/K-theory/0918/>


From the tannakian view point, Artin motives are just representation of the usual Galois group. So, as motives, Artin motives are not that interesting. It's just the usual Galois theory of fields. 


