The Nile Delta of Egypt was invaded and ruled from 1650 to 1550 B.C. b

The Nile Delta of Egypt was invaded and ruled from 1650 to 1550 B.C. by a people called Hyksos. Their origin is uncertain, but archaeologists hypothesize that they were Canaanites. In support of this hypothesis, the archaeologists point out that excavations of Avaris, the Hyksos capital in Egypt, have uncovered large numbers of artifacts virtually identical to artifacts produced in Ashkelon, a major city of Canaan at the time of the Hyksos invasion.

In order to evaluate the force of the archaeologists' evidence, it would be most useful to determine which of the following?

(A) Whether there were some afritifacts found at Avaris that were unlike those produced in Ashkelon but that date to before 1700 B.C.
(B) Whether the Hyksos ruled any other part of Egypt besides the Nile Delta in the period from 1650 to 1550 B.C.
(C) Whether Avaris was the nearest Hyksos city in Egypt to Canaan
(D) Wheter Ashkelon after 1550 B.C. continued to produce artifacts similar to those found at Avaris
(E) Wheter many of the artifacts found at Avaris that are similar to artifacts produced in Ashkelon date to well before the Hyksos invasion.


Lets evaluate the answer choices:

A) Some in the answer choice is specific and don't help us to get holistic picture of the event. So irrelevant answer choice.
B) Whether "Hyksos ruled any other part of Egypt besides the Nile Delta in the period from 1650 to 1550 B.C" is not relevant to the discussion here as we are only concerned about the whether Hyksos are Canaanites or not.
C) It also don't bear any relevance as distance doesn't matter for that relationship to take place.
D) In case of this, lets apply extreme test. If Ashkelon after 1550 B.C. continued to produce artifacts similar to those found at Avaris then it strengthen the claim . However, if we take the opposite effect, then also the conclusion doesn't break.
E) Now lets apply the extreme test here, "Wheter many of the artifacts found at Avaris that are similar to artifacts produced in Ashkelon date to well before the Hyksos invasion.". Here if the answer is YES, then the conclusion weakens. Conversely, if it's NO, the conclusion strengthens. So this is the CORRECT answer choice.