[tomrod]

I share the concern.

When whole colors didn't even have names several thousand years ago, things can be dubious (e.g. wine-dark sea).

This is part of peer-review -- being able to defend the ideas. When the academic "peer" group is reduced to "only those from certain institutions and pedigrees" it really waters down the quality of peer review. Go back 250 years, and peer review was your buddy you met at a symposium two countries over, because only a handful of folks had general interest (i.e. no Quanta magazine yet).

If the exposition of those ideas are locked behind a paywall from peers with interest, then it really isn't very peer reviewable.

I too do not have institutional access.

[anigbrowl]

wine-dark sea

I have often wondered about that one - is it due to light intensity at Mediterranean latitudes, or the frequency of storms, or the predominance of bronze at the time? Or was there a greater variety of grapes and wine colors? Or is it to do with the absence of glass, so that colors were appraised as they appeared in metallic drinking vessels?