PrepTest 128, Section 2, Question 17
Archaeologists excavating a Neanderthal campsite found discarded gazelle(51 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(8 more words not shown)
- ANeanderthals hunted a(8 more words not shown)
- BCro-Magnons and Neanderthals(3 more words not shown)
- CNeanderthals saved gazelle(10 more words not shown)
- DCro-Magnons usually followed(7 more words not shown)
- EGazelles inhabited the(5 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The teeth show that gazelles were hunted in different seasons. Why does that mean the same Neanderthals stayed at this campsite all year?
Perhaps different groups passed through at different times. Imagine twelve groups, with one visiting in January, another in February, and so on. The site could accumulate evidence from every season even though each group moved on. A Yellowstone campsite might be occupied throughout the year without the same campers staying there throughout the year.
The comparison with the Cro-Magnon site doesn't remove that possibility. Teeth from a single season fit a seasonal visit, but teeth from many seasons don't automatically establish one population's continuous residence.
What we’re looking for
To weaken the archaeologists' reasoning, I'd look for a way the year-round evidence could accumulate without year-round residence. My first prediction is different visitors at different times. An answer could also expose another problem in connecting the teeth with how long their owners stayed.
Working the answers
- A
The migration patterns of the animals don't establish the movement patterns of the Neanderthals. People could hunt different kinds of animals while staying in one place or while traveling. A doesn't explain why teeth from different seasons would fail to show year-round residence here.
- B
Tool exchanges don't tell us that these gazelle teeth were exchanged. We might try to imagine teeth being used as tools and traded, but that adds a connection the answer doesn't supply. The mere exchange of tools doesn't undermine what the archaeologists infer from the teeth.
- CCorrect
Saving the teeth opens another route. Imagine a traveling group hunting gazelles in different seasons and carrying the teeth for later rituals. For a concrete picture, suppose the group collects teeth while traveling through France, then spends only a month at a campsite in Germany and discards its collection there. The teeth could represent a year's hunting without representing a year's residence at the German site.
The answer doesn't dispute the coloration evidence about when the animals were killed. It separates that timing from when and where the teeth were discarded. That is why saved teeth weaken the inference from a collection at one campsite to continuous residence there.
- D
This concerns the Cro-Magnons, whose nomadic behavior already forms the contrast in the passage. It doesn't tell us that the Neanderthals also traveled or explain how their campsite accumulated teeth from multiple seasons without continuous residence.
- E
Year-round gazelle availability would make year-round hunting in that area possible. That is compatible with the archaeologists' conclusion, not evidence against it. Available prey doesn't prove the Neanderthals stayed, but it doesn't weaken the proposed account either.
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