I think the point of the question is “tax dollars”. If someone wants to pay for knowledge themselves, that’s great! To expect a debt-ridden nation to fork over tax dollars to learn about a rather unremarkable pottery piece is absurd.
I don’t think the source of funding for the study is listed-at least not in the article. Many research grants are financed by wealthy philanthropists and such-it even happens right here in the US. Tax money grants are usually used here to finance the nonsensical s***-like climate change, the sex lives of amoebas-and even animal cruelty like Fauci torturing beagles...
No, the point of the question is to troll a science topic.