The Smith and the Devil

I read something about the ancientness of folktales and thought it worth reporting, thinking it was an update on  things I had read before.  I should have been suspicious when I saw the publication date of 2016 that this was probably something that had already found its way to me before.  The study itself seemed like new information to me, heavily dependent on Bayesian mathematics, about which I basically know the principle and the vocabulary and little more.  Make that nothing more. But as a paragraph halfway through the study rang a bell, I wondered if I had seen articles about this before, even if I hadn't seen the study itself.  Or perhaps, forgotten the study in confusion.

It turns out that I had told you about this study when it came out in 2016 and linked to a BBC article, I also made some general observations, and apparently had read the study then as well. I then linked to another article about the study in 2019, making fewer remarks.  There's no evidence I read the study a second time. This suggests I will be posting on this again in early 2014. 

Update:  Readers have pointed out that should be 2024.

There's a slight update from one of the researchers, and a parallel development with Vietnamese folktales. As far as I can tell no one is interested anymore.