Yeah historians and archeologists generally have about a dozen ideas and wont discount or accept them till enough data has been collected. A prime example are those weird Roman dodecahedrons, where it could be everthing from a knitting instrument to a niche tool to something as simple as a nick nack. Though I think the knitting example is actually discounted because the type of knitting that was done with it was either not common enough to justify a specialized tool or not invented yet.
Anyways archeology is fun cause you can sometimes find new ways an artifact was used, like for example a helmet can be used as a helmet, a pisspot, or a bowl. This means we sometiems have no clue what an artifact was used for, unless they say fertility ritual then we know exactly what it was used for.
Kiosade@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Well it took them 50 years to figure out, whereas Adam guessed it immediately.
Azzu@lemm.ee 2 months ago
Didn’t they confirm it after 50 years? They had suspicions in different directions, including crotch armor?
Umbrias@beehaw.org 2 months ago
Yeah this is the key point in all of this. You can speculate forever, until you can confirm it your confidence will be very low.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Yeah historians and archeologists generally have about a dozen ideas and wont discount or accept them till enough data has been collected. A prime example are those weird Roman dodecahedrons, where it could be everthing from a knitting instrument to a niche tool to something as simple as a nick nack. Though I think the knitting example is actually discounted because the type of knitting that was done with it was either not common enough to justify a specialized tool or not invented yet.
Anyways archeology is fun cause you can sometimes find new ways an artifact was used, like for example a helmet can be used as a helmet, a pisspot, or a bowl. This means we sometiems have no clue what an artifact was used for, unless they say fertility ritual then we know exactly what it was used for.