There can be no way to know what we could have learned: Do different regions have specific manufacturing techniques? Were regional techniques based on local or Roman techniques primarily? How did soldiers decorate their personal equipment? Would it have been grandious (as wealthy samurai) or were they kept small to display the unit as a uniform front? Did the changes to individuals’ equipment get adopted quickly (like a new phone does today) or did they stick with their grandfather’s sword as long as it was “good enough”?

We may have some ideas of all this and more, but more data points means more patterns to recognize. And people love pattern recognition.