The discovery of the first authenticated biblical scripture

The discovery of the first authenticated biblical scripture in Anglo-Saxon from an ancient attic in a Manchester suburb could provide important clues of determining, in addition to how, when continental Europeans colonized the British Isles.


A. of determining, in addition to how, when continental Europeans colonized the British Isles --- of determining is a wrong idiom in the context.

B. in the determination of how and when the British Isles were colonized by continental Europeans ----in the determination of is not concise.

C. to determine how continental Europeans colonized the British Isles and when they did --The second is just dangling without completion. In additions, 'they' is rather problematic. 'It' may stand of Europeans or even clues (The discovery of the first authenticated biblical scripture in Anglo-Saxon from an ancient attic in a Manchester suburb could provide important clues
to determine how continental Europeans colonized the British Isles and when the clues did (provide)

D. for determining when the British Isles were colonized by continental Europeans and how they were --- for determining is the correct idiom. However, the second part has the same problems as in C.

E. for determining how and when continental Europeans colonized the British Isles -- Best of the lot with the problems posed in C and D altogether avoided.

Although provide for is the correct idiom usage but I wouldn't go for it right away without looking all options:

A. of determining, in addition to how, when continental Europeans colonized the British Isles - provide important clues of whenever I see the preposition of, I tend to find a noun after it. e.g. it provided clues of an earthquake. here it is following a clause, hence I will reject this option
B. in the determination of how and when the British Isles were colonized by continental Europeans - Awkward because of passive voice. Also, subtle change in meaning. The discovery provided clues in the determination of seems that the discovery was done just for the clues and not for actual finding
C. to determine how continental Europeans colonized the British Isles and when they did - It makes sense to take the subject or subject + verb common from a parallelism identifier. Never seen such a case where object is taken common
D. for determining when the British Isles were colonized by continental Europeans and how they were - Same as (C)
E. for determining how and when continental Europeans colonized the British Isles - Here how and when is part of a question. You can think how and when as another keyword in wh-family

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