Hindsight is so clear, I imagine there were a myriad of other suggestions too, that we’d scoff at. This one does have one strand of evidence with spectroscopy,

Hindsight is so clear, I imagine there were a myriad of other suggestions too, that we’d scoff at. This one does have one strand of evidence with spectroscopy, but at the time I wouldn’t have thought that would have tied in to other ideas. There was supposed to be a bit of renaissance with lots of new ideas In the 1200s, there had been advances made in logic, but progress may have been stymied shortly afterwards.