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The principle of parsimony applies here. Explanations that don't require centralized bronze age kingdoms everywhere, formal standardization of weights, and thou
by AlotOfReading 5y ago
The principle of parsimony applies here. Explanations that don't require centralized bronze age kingdoms everywhere, formal standardization of weights, and thousands of years of no one conducting long distance trade are more parsimonious than those that do.
One of the issues with archaeology is that it's easy to come up with thousands of plausible explanations for any particular set of data. Parsimony and other tools are essential to winnowing things down a bit.
- boomboomsubban 5y ago>Explanations that don't require centralized bronze age kingdoms everywhere, formal standardization of weights, and thousands of years of no one conducting long distance trade are more parsimonious than those that do. We have ample evidence of all three of those existed to some degree, and that's why the idea that the measurements were decreed has been the predominant explanation for a while now. I think this one piece of evidence could be explained within the current hypothesis.