History As Regression

History is unknowable. That's a statement that we, with our postmodern outlooks, probably all think has at least some validity. Though we dig up evidence that points us to some conclusions, we can't really know for sure what went down on any given day of the past. Even if we witnessed an event with our own eyes, the instant afterwards the memories start to fade. Every time we revisit a memory, we trace new paths over it, so what could be left may be completely different than what we started with. History is even more slippery a subject. Not all events leave clear marks behind, and the marks that are left are not easily found. The evidence we do find of past events is rarely more than a set of data points, but it's human nature to immediately connect the dots. We cannot help but fit a curve, to enact statistical regression, on that data.  If one sunny day, sifting through the sands of Cairo, Egypt, we find a ancient bottle with engraved latin words, it'd be reas...