#7 - The cumbersome spears that were the principal weapons

[Anali]

The answer choices to this question are tricky. For me (E) was a contender but I went with (D) because it states that armor and weapons were found in the tombs. I ruled out (E) because I assumed arrowheads are often found on spears.

However, even when you assume that arrowheads are not often used with spears, how is (E) better than (D)? They both mention weaponry other than spears.

[Adam Tyson]

Good question, Anali, but be careful: answer D says "weapons", but does not say that those weapons were something other than those pesky cumbersome spears! For all we know, based on the text of the stimulus, those tombs contained armor and spears and no other accoutrements of warfare. Answer E is better because arrowheads DO indicate another type of weapons - arrows! The head of a spear is not an arrowhead, but a spearhead. Thus, we have support for the claim that the late Bronze Age was marked at least in part by new methods of warfare, as compared to the spear-dominated warfare of the early Bronze Age.

Don't make too many outside assumptions! Good luck, keep at it, and come back here for more. We'll be here!

[LetsGetThis180]

Hi there!

I was between C and E and I ended up picking C. I understand why E is the correct answer choice now. My reasoning here is because E is a lot stronger than C. I picked C because I thought "pottery with scenes of violent warfare" is strong evidence. But, C could also be wrong because drawing something on a pottery doesn't necessarily mean it happened. Am I thinking the right way here?

[James Finch]

Hi LetsGetThis180,

The major difference between answer choices (C) and (E) is that (C) doesn't actually help the conclusion, while (E) does. (C) would provide evidence for one of the premises--that warfare was frequent between late Bronze Age tribes--except it is out of scope for that, dealing only with early Bronze Age artifacts. So (C) is ultimately irrelevant to the stimulus.

(E), in contrast, supports the conclusion "that by the late Bronze Age, these tribes had developed new methods of warfare designed to inflict many casualties." Remember, this is what we're trying to strengthen, not one of the premises. This means that our prephrase should be to look for evidence of weapons besides spears being used during the late Bronze Age. (E) gives us this alternative weapon (arrows) during the timeframe we need (late Bronze Age), making it our correct answer.

Hope this helps!

[LetsGetThis180]

Thank you, James! That was very helpful and I understand it a lot better now.