I'd just like to add, that when I came here I was oblivious too all the detail and history that goes into determining origin and age, etc. But I was very interested... and asked question after question, and read up as much as I could on the topics I was interested on. Only now am I slowly gaining a better understand. The gurus are right, it's almost an intuition you develop after handling and seeing many pieces, reading up on history, and discussing...
after awhile you can tell if something is real or fake... the region it could come from... the ethnic group perhaps... the time period, give or take a few decades. Sometmes knowing history can tell you why a sudden shift in styles occurred, or why a certain material became used for the fittings, or whatever...
like any study, it takes studying
just my 2 cents