Information and IdeasVery hardFinding weakening a causal explanation
Information and Ideas practice question
An archaeologist argues that a coastal settlement was abandoned because rising sea levels flooded it.
Which finding, if true, would most directly weaken the archaeologist's argument?
- A. Sediment cores show that the sea level at the site was falling, not rising, during the century when the settlement was abandoned.Correct
- B. The settlement's houses were built of timber.
- C. Other coastal settlements in the region were abandoned at about the same time.
- D. Fish bones are common in the settlement's rubbish heaps.
Answer: A. Sediment cores show that the sea level at the site was falling, not rising, during the century when the settlement was abandoned.
If the sea was falling when the people left, rising seas cannot have driven them out.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. The settlement's houses were built of timber.
- Building material doesn't bear on why the site was abandoned.
- C. Other coastal settlements in the region were abandoned at about the same time.
- Other coastal abandonments would be consistent with a regional sea-level cause, so this doesn't weaken the argument.
- D. Fish bones are common in the settlement's rubbish heaps.
- Fish bones show the people fished; they say nothing about the sea level.
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