Blue beads could be the oldest evidence of European goods in North America

Re:Blue beads could be the oldest evidence of European goods... by Enginerrrd on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @09:46AM (#26154278)

I disagree that it would be indistinguishable. You need to chain together a long series of probabilities that leads to exponentially less product arriving through diffusion than through long-range traders, and a clear trail would result.

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Re:Blue beads could be the oldest evidence of European goods... by AlotOfReading on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @11:09AM (#26155222)

The typical approach to direct contact is to look for the signs of the people making the journey (genetic, linguistic, and cultural transmission). If you don't have these, they're often practically indistinguishable because the archaeological record inherently tends to be spotty, without continuous data points for uncommon trade goods. Moreover, the Asian northeast is vast and only lightly surveyed.

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Re:Blue beads could be the oldest evidence of European goods... by JoeAltmaier on Tuesday February 16, 2021 @12:23PM (#26156266)

You only need time. The probability of any individual product arriving is indeed small. The probability of some item arriving is certainty, given enough time.

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