#4- Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[NP59813]

I had some difficulty interpreting lines 47-49 - "For example, these techniques made it possible to confirm that the excavated pieces of clay once considered useless in fact functioned as loom weights."

For #4, I took the "excavated pieces of clay" to be non-traditional sources of ancient history because normally, those pieces would have "no immediate discernible value" as indicated by lines 35-36. Answer choice A supports this choice.

Again, I understand why D is correct, but still having a tough time figuring out why A can be eliminated.

After reviewing, the only conclusion I can come to is that, the correct answers are objectively BETTER options and clearer. Still, it would be great if someone could help me actively prove why A is wrong.

Thanks for the help,

NP

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, NP,

Good question! "Traditional sources of evidence" would include anything that had been used as evidence, even if the conclusions had been erroneous! Thus, even though the pieces of clay were discarded or misidentified, they did indeed represent a "source of evidence," just one that had been ignored because of its apparent lack of archaeological value.

Does this help clear this question up for you? Please follow up with more questions!

[SGD2021]

Hello,

How is the following underlined part of answer choice D supported by the passage? Re-creations of looms from which inferences about ancient weaving techniques can be made.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi SDG,

We can pull this information from right around line 45 in the passage. There, the passage discusses recreating the production of textiles. They give the specific example learning about the loom weights as they built a recreation. They were also able to learn about the textiles used to decorate statues. This is directly discussed in the passage, but it is not one of the traditional methods referred to in the beginning of the passage.

Hope that helps!