What little pagans know of the ancient pagan religions comes from second and even third-hand sources. Fragments of oral traditions, old stone relics with figures carved on them that we interpret as spiritual in nature, and folklore that has come through centuries of cultural filters.
Publishers push for a saleable work, rather than for an academically sound one.
Admittedly, only a few of us willingly slog through thick works that always need an unabridged dictionary for a companion. A few others have at least tried to set standards, find answers, or reduce confusion. An unfortunate reality is that there is precious little on the Web dedicated to pagan scholarship, or perhaps it appears so in the glut of sites that have appeared since 1996. Although I personally contend this glut of bad sites is a good thing, as people all over the world reclaim their informational freedom, for causes like pagan scholarship being forced into a niche is bad news that will take serious work to escape from. Although the history and roots of ancient paganism fascinates me, I can see where finding this information might equate with banging my head into a wall.