06-22-2006, 03:43 PM
Ever notice how one week a clinical study says one thing and then the next week another study says the opposite? Statistics isn't exactly the ideal way to demonstrate anything it seems- at least I take anything demonstrated that way with a BLOCK of salt :lol: A population of 19 artifacts is UNBELIEVABLY TINY (too small a population seems to be the problem with a lot of studies), so I can't honestly see how any conclusions can be drawn from them- Z-statistic or not :wink: Especially since we have no idea whatsoever what the actual population of extant artifacts is- since we surely haven't found them all yet- so it's impossible to say whether or not the sample we have is representative.
I'm with Hilary- there are a million possible reasons for the dispartiy seen. And to be honest, combat issues seems to be a less-likely one to me. Only if entire HELMETS without left or right cheekguards were consistently found would I start to see the chance that one side or the other was consistently damaged and required repair, or if lone damaged left cheekguards were far more common would I start to think about right-handed opponents. For just lone intact cheekguards, my first question is where's the rest of the helmet? If not damaged, why would they be removed or why would only they survive and not the rest?
Certainly it's fun to speculate though
Matt
I'm with Hilary- there are a million possible reasons for the dispartiy seen. And to be honest, combat issues seems to be a less-likely one to me. Only if entire HELMETS without left or right cheekguards were consistently found would I start to see the chance that one side or the other was consistently damaged and required repair, or if lone damaged left cheekguards were far more common would I start to think about right-handed opponents. For just lone intact cheekguards, my first question is where's the rest of the helmet? If not damaged, why would they be removed or why would only they survive and not the rest?
Certainly it's fun to speculate though
Matt
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