Posted by Steve Price on April 27, 1999 at 12:25:16:
In Reply to: Re: NW Persian-Caucasian "Mafrash" the Anomaly? posted by Michael Wendorf on April 27, 1999 at 11:34:48:
Dear Michael,
Thanks for reminding me that woven boxes are not uniquely NW Persian. As in real life face-to-face conversations, sometimes my mouth starts moving before my brain is engaged.
I agree that whatever conclusions we may arrive at will be speculative, but I am not too bothered by that. My own view on what we know and how we know it is that practically every conclusion is speculative to one extent or another, and refusal to speculate leads to intellectual stagnation. This is not to suggest that we ought to fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do, of course. But unasked questions cannot lead to answers.
And even if I agree with the position, "why wouldn't we expect the weavings to be different?" (and I do agree, by the way), looking for an explanation of the specifics of the differences may - and I emphasize, MAY - help us to understand some things that we didn't understand before. And the lasting damage we are likely to do to ourselves by giving the matter some thought is probably pretty minimal (that's my professor side rearing its ugly head!).
Regards,
Steve Price