During a recent excavation, fragments of a ceremonial urn dating back

Your reasoning makes sense but I still do not buy that E is a strong answer choice. The basis of your choice is that you only have to prove that the Pottery was created in that specific region, and not brought through trade or some other means.

But answer choice E fails to 1) Say the paint was ONLY accessible in that region, 2) The paintings were from the exact time period of the pottery, 3) Pottery could not be created in another region and painted in a new region.

There are other possibilities as well.

Answer E just says that the Clay urn (which was possibly made from a new mexico pueblo pottery wheel) was painted with paint that was in fact present in the region at some time period. Answer choice A, says some Pueblos used a pottery wheel prior, proving that pueblo speaking people had the technology to use a pottery wheel.

If the goal is to prove the new mexico pueblos used a pottery wheel, I believe it is stronger to say, other regions of pueblos used pottery wheel technology BEFORE these pots were created, than it is to say, these pots which were assuredly made with a pottery wheel but have the same paint as art found in the region before, during, or potentially after, the pottery was made.

VeritasKarishma VeritasPrepBrian

Can't figure out how how the answer is (E).

We need to show that the Pueblos used a pottery wheel to make the recently discovered urn.

(A) tells that remains of a pottery wheel used by Pueblos have been found at a different site and these pottery wheel remains predate the recently discovered clay urn.
This tells that the Pueblos knew about the pottery wheel before thee clay urn was made.

(E) talks about paint used in rock art. I feel this is out of scope. We are concerned with the urn and the pottery wheel, not paint and rock art.
Also, no where it is mentioned that the urn is painted. All we know that the urn is ceremonial. For all we know, the urn could be plain one.

Hi chetan2u ,
If I am not misunderstanding the question stem, we also need to connect something to prove that the tribe in specific region in specific time used pottery wheel.

//However, further investigation revealed that the light brown clay used to create the urn, popularly known as ((‘golden clay,’ could only have been fashioned into an urn with the use of a pottery wheel))// - here is the link !!

Since, golden clay could only be used if the urn was made with the pottery wheel, so...let us look for an answer which gives evidence regarding the same.

A. The remains of a pottery wheel have been unearthed at a Pueblo site in Utah, a finding that predates the discovery of the urn fragments. - oos

B. There is undeniable evidence that the Pueblo tribes who lived in the New Mexico area a millennium ago made frequent use of the pottery wheel. - not that strong. Still keep.

C. Flooding can soften the texture of clay to an extent that it can easily be molded by hand, and there is evidence that the now-dry canyon once received a considerable amount of rainfall. - irrelevant

D. Golden clay is commonly used by modern-day descendants of the Pueblos to create decorative pieces that can only be made by artists who have mastered the use of the pottery wheel. - irrelevant.

E. An examination of the surface of the urn fragments has revealed traces of an iron oxide called hematite that was a common ingredient of the paint used in the Pueblo rock art found in caves. - bingo.

E is better than B because it connects urn + golden clay + Pottery wheel.

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The trickery in question has nothing to do with the stimulus at all. It's the question stem that tricks you. This is not a paradox question. We don't need to show that the Pueblos used the pottery wheel in order to make their pottery. [I too fell for it and selected A on my first try.] This is a strengthen question. The conclusion of the stimulus states outright that a pottery wheel was used by the Pueblos. We need to strengthen the link between the pottery and the Pueblos, not the pottery and the wheel. 'E' does a good job at establishing that link.

VeritasKarishma it is nowhere mentioned in option E that the rock paintings in the caves were made 15000 years ago.

The argument says "... 1500 years ago ... the Pueblo tribes who lived in the area around that time..."
Option (E) says "...paint used in the Pueblo rock art found in caves"

So we are talking about Pueblo times - the times when Pueblo tribes lived there. Both, the paintings and the urn have a common paint ingredient. So it is likely they were both made by Pueblo. This makes it likely that Pueblos used pottery wheel.

How to relate E with use of pottery wheel? what in it confirms the use ?

The argument already states that the Urn could only have been created using the pottery wheel. The main gap in the argument is that this urn could have been created somewhere else and could have been imported here. Option E links the material found in the urn to some other things in the Pueblo tribe region. Hence, strengthening the conclusion that the Pueblo tribe indeed used the pottery wheel.

Since golden clay could only be used if the urn was made with the pottery wheel, so...let us look for an answer which gives evidence regarding the same.

A. The remains of a pottery wheel have been unearthed at a Pueblo site in Utah, a finding that predates the discovery of the urn fragments. - oos

B. There is undeniable evidence that the Pueblo tribes who lived in the New Mexico area a millennium ago made frequent use of the pottery wheel. - not that strong. Still, keep.

C. Flooding can soften the texture of clay to an extent that it can easily be molded by hand, and there is evidence that the now-dry canyon once received a considerable amount of rainfall. - irrelevant

D. Golden clay is commonly used by modern-day descendants of the Pueblos to create decorative pieces that can only be made by artists who have mastered the use of the pottery wheel. - irrelevant.

E. An examination of the surface of the urn fragments has revealed traces of an iron oxide called hematite that was a common ingredient of the paint used in the Pueblo rock art found in caves. - bingo.

E is better than B because it connects urn + golden clay + Pottery wheel.

I suggest applying a 4-step process to tackle this controversial problem.

Step 1 - Read carefully the QS (to canalize your reading)

We are asked to strengthen the following conclusion “Discovery of the fragments is an indication that Pueblos Tribes used the pottery wheel”.
We can address this kind of questions by strengthening a fact or an assumption on which the argument relies.

Step 2 - Understand the argument and its Logical Construction (visualization)

PbT : Pueblos Tribe, PW : Pottery Wheel, HP : Hand Pottery, GdC : Golden Clay

The passage can be summarized as follows :
a) Recent discovery: fragments of Urn, 1500 yo, in Mexico City Canyon (Fact)
b) Before discovery, a certain opinion was held: PbT used HP (Fact including opinion held)
c) Following recent discovery, it was concluded that PbT used PW instead. Reason for new conclusion: The GdC used to create the urn could have only been fashioned by using PW.

The underlying assumption is that : PW is the only way the GdC could be used to create that urn.

Step 3 – Pre-thinking

How can we strengthen that argument? --> By making connexions between the different pieces of the argument. This can be achieved through different options :

1) Supporting the assumption by showing that indeed "the GdC used to create the urn involves PW and not HP".
2) Making a strong connexion between the urn and the PbT : Showing that the PbT were familiar with the use of PW.
3) Eliminating the possibility of external factors : showing that the urn was created by the PbT and not by another tribe (it could have been possible that the urn excavated was imported through trade and that the PbT were not even familiar with the use of PW).

Step 4 - Process Of Elimination

A - The remains of a pottery wheel have been unearthed at a Pueblo site in Utah, a finding that predates the discovery of the urn fragments.

Pay attention to UTAH. Our scope is “PbT living in the area surrounding New Mexico Canyon", not those living in Utah.

Hadn’t it been for that geographic difference, Answer choice A would have been a good contender for correct choice.
Assuming we didn't have that geographic difference (New Mexico Canyon instead of Utah), we would have cemented our confidence in the fact that the PbT indeed could have used the PW (since the PW was available to them well prior to the creation of the urn, they could have used it to create the urn).


B. There is undeniable evidence that the Pueblo tribes who lived in the New Mexico area a millennium ago made frequent use of the pottery wheel.

Answer choice B is interesting because it makes the connexion between the PW and the PbT. However, we are concerned about the PbT who lived 1,500 yrs ago and not those who lived 1,000 yrs ago. For this reason, B is out.

C. Flooding can soften the texture of clay to an extent that it can easily be moulded by hand, and there is evidence that the now-dry canyon once received a considerable amount of rainfall.

C is out because it is irrelevant to the argument. In fact, it tends toward the possibility of using HP instead of PW. At the best, this choice weakens our argument.

D. Golden clay is commonly used by modern-day descendants of the Pueblos to create decorative pieces that can only be made by artists who have mastered the use of the pottery wheel.

D is out because it talks about the modern descendants and not the PbT that lived 1500 years ago. It would have been interesting if the scope was the PbT living 1,500 yrs ago instead of their descendants.

E. An examination of the surface of the urn fragments has revealed traces of an iron oxide called hematite that was a common ingredient of the paint used in the Pueblo rock art found in caves.

The kind of answer choices that leave you speechless and wondering :

However as always when selecting your answer choice, keep in mind the question statement and stick to fact, expressed in the argument and don’t eliminate an answer choice because you don't like it.

This answer choice basically associates the urn with the PbT. It makes it LIKELY that they were the ones who fashioned the GdC used to create the urn.

This answer choice isn’t perfect but it helps cement our belief that the urn wasn’t the results of external actors (Cf step 3-pre-thinking). This answer choice would have been perfect it had made a link between hematite and PW (for example by showing that hematite painting is incompatible with HP).

but the question talks about suitable premise that wheel was used. how does d does that?

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This can be answered by eliminating ans choices too
A . Talks about utah but the qs is about New Mexico eliminated ❌
B. Millennium is period of 1000 yrs but qs talks about 1500 yrs - ❌
C. Talks about flooding and soften clay but evidence of considerable rainfall , all considerable rainfall doesn’t leads to flooding ❌
D.modern descendants could have learned from anywhere so ❌
E.only option left ✔️

Got the answer through elimination and not selection it's easier to fall for other options in such questions.
E) reason for this takes time to understand but nevertheless is right as it removes a weakener in the argument that is maybe the urns did not belong to the tribe mentioned.