Even I think it's not one of the cleanest question.

IMO, the answer is D.

Reason: We are sure that Mayan lived 3000 ag0 (From the pottery)...
THEN >> We found an old stone(4500 yrs old) which looks like the implements used by the Mayan
Argument says: Mayan lived 4500 yrs ago..

Flaw: What if they(Mayan) just have borrowed the design for their implements and their implements are same as the old implement..!!(Just an example)..

So, the option D: Normally cultures uses the design developed by early inhabitants....so the stone design was copied (Copyright case..!!) and now other implement (3000 yr old) look same as the older one (4000 yr old).

Hope this helps..

Chose D for exactly the same reasons .

What is the OA ykaiim .. you havn't been posting OAs lately.

I can't make any connections between the stem to A,B,C and E. Only D makes sense by providing alternative explanation to the implements (whatever it was!!)
stem: Mayan dated at 3000 ago
Earlier implement dated at 4500 ago
Mayan's implement resembled earlier implement
therefore Mayan dated to 4500 ago

Choice D:Mayan dated at 3000 ago
Earlier implement dated at 4500 ago
Mayan's implement resembled earlier implement
therefore Mayan copied earlier culture

The earliest Mayan pottery found at Colha, in Belize, is about 3,000 years old. Recently, however, 4,500-year-old stone agricultural implements were unearthed at Colha. These implements resemble Mayan stone implements of a much later period, also found at Colha. Moreover, the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times. Therefore, there were surely Mayan settlements in Colha 4,500 years ago.

Premise: Earliest Mayan pottery 3000 years old
But X that is 4500 years old also found
X different from all the other things made 4500 years ago
X resembles things that were made by mayans much later in the same place
Conclusion: Hence, Mayans were there 4500 years ago

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Ceramic ware is not known to have been used by the Mayan people to make agricultural implements. Irrelevant Nothing about Ceramic mentioned.
(B) Carbon-dating of corn pollen in Colha indicates that agriculture began there around 4,500 years ago. Talks about agriculture. The discussion is not about agriculture. It is about whether mayans were there 4500 years ago
(C) Archaeological evidence indicates that some of the oldest stone implements found at Colha were used to cut away vegetation after controlled burning of trees to open areas of swampland for cultivation. Irrelevant
(D) Successor cultures(Mayans of a much later period) at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site. This is the only option that weakens the argument. This statement says that other cultures at the same place adopt the style of agri. impl. used by earlier cultures in the same place. . Hence, those ppl who lived 4500 years ago may not have been mayans.
(E) Many religious and social institutions of the Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago relied on a highly developed system of agricultural symbols. Irrelevant

Agreed that the answer is D. I chose D too. But, in hindsight, I have one doubt.

See, the argument as follows:-

4500-yr old Stone implements found at Colha, which resemble ones used by Mayans at a later date. Fine.
But, the style and design of these implements hasn't been seen before in any culture. This means that this was a new style, never existed before.

Then how is D correct which says that Mayans copied this style from some other culture? So how can the Mayans take this / copy this style from any other culture? Because the stem says that "no culture ever had such style... "

Please help..

(D) Successor cultures("may be Mayans or may be not" of a much later period) at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site. This is the only option that weakens the argument. This statement says that other cultures at the same place adopt the style of agricultural implementation used by earlier cultures in the same place. Hence, those ppl who lived 4500 years ago may not have been Mayans.

Hope it clears the doubt! Kudos!
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Given - the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times.

(D) Successor cultures at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site.

Unable to understand how D is the correct choice if it is given that the designs were different than ones produced by other cultures that lived in the area before mayans. What am i interpreting incorrectly.

The part you missed is: "KNOWN to have inhabited the area". There could possibly be some other culture NOT KNOWN, from which the Mayans adopted the stone implements. Therefore option D is correct.

The earliest Mayan pottery found at Colha, in Belize, is about 3,000 years old. Recently, however, 4,500-year-old stone agricultural implements were unearthed at Colha. These implements resemble Mayan stone implements of a much later period, also found at Colha. Moreover, the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times. Therefore, there were surely Mayan settlements in Colha 4,500 years ago.

Which of the following, if true, most seriously weakens the argument?

(A) Ceramic ware is not known to have been used by the Mayan people to make agricultural implements.
(B) Carbon-dating of corn pollen in Colha indicates that agriculture began there around 4,500 years ago.
(C) Archaeological evidence indicates that some of the oldest stone implements found at Colha were used to cut away vegetation after controlled burning of trees to open areas of swampland for cultivation.
(D) Successor cultures at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site.
(E) Many religious and social institutions of the Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago relied on a highly developed system of agricultural symbols.


The first highlighted part is the conclusion. The second highlighted part is the question stem....so we need an answer choice which basically says that the implements unearthed are not Mayans.

Option D talks about successor cultures adopting the style of previous inhabitants. This hints at the settlement unearthed(the one presumed to be 4500 years ago) copied the style from their successor(their identity we do not know) and down the line the style got passed to the Mayans, but not for once it establishes that 4500 years ago the settlement was of Mayans. Hence the correct choice. Frankly the other choices just made the job simpler, apart from D all of them seemed out of context.

Dear sayantanc2k I did not understand the passage at all. Could you please help me understand the passage and the answers?

I can try

The earliest Mayan pottery found at Colha, in Belize, is about 3,000 years old. Recently, however, 4,500-year-old stone agricultural implements were unearthed at Colha. These implements resemble Mayan stone implements of a much later period, also found at Colha. Moreover, the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times. Therefore, there were surely Mayan settlements in Colha 4,500 years ago.

Oldest Mayan pottery is 3000 years old.
Recently some agricultural related stuff have been found in Colha. These stuffs are 4500 year old. These stuff resemble like Mayan Stone( which was found later period).
Also design of those agricultural stuff is different from designs of other cultural people. Therefore author says, Mayan people lived 4500 years ago.

The earliest Maya pottery was discovered 3,000 years ago. But recently, agricultural tools were discovered 4,500 years ago. These tools are very similar to the tools used by the Mayans, and they are very different from other civilized tools. Therefore, it is concluded that the Mayan civilization should exist 4,500 years ago. (Because the author has determined that the agricultural tool that was 4,500 years ago must have been invented by the Maya). D pointed out that later cultures often used agricultural tools of predecessor culture. It also implies that the Maya may have used the tools created by the predecessors of non-Mayan culture. In this way, the tool discovered before 4,500 years ago may have been created by the predecessor's non-Mayan culture, but at a later time, the Maya directly inherited the relics. So it weakened the conclusion that the Maya settled in Colha 4,500 years ago.

Earliest Mayan pottery found at Colha is about 3,000 years old (so we think that first Mayans might have lived at that time)

Recently, however, 4,500-year-old stone agricultural implements were unearthed at Colha.
These implements resemble Mayan stone implements of a much later period, also found at Colha. (perhaps 3000 or 2000 yrs old)

Moreover, the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area in prehistoric times. (the design is different from designs on other cultures known to have inhabited there so it increases the probability that they look like Mayan implements not because all implements of those times look the same but because they are Mayan implements.

Conclusion: Therefore, there were surely Mayan settlements in Colha 4,500 years ago.
Mayans existed 4500 years ago.

Because implements very similar to Mayan implements and different from other implements of those times were found 4500 years ago in Colha, we are concluding that Mayans lived in Colha 4500 years ago.
We need to weaken this. How can we do that? If we say that another civilisation lived at that time who used these implements and Mayans inherited their implements later, then we can weaken that Mayans lived 4500 years ago.

(A) Ceramic ware is not known to have been used by the Mayan people to make agricultural implements.

We are talking about stone implements.

(B) Carbon-dating of corn pollen in Colha indicates that agriculture began there around 4,500 years ago.

If agriculture began around 4500 years ago and we found agricultural implements of 4500 year ago, it is consistent with our argument. It doesn't impact that Mayans lived 4500 yrs ago.

(C) Archaeological evidence indicates that some of the oldest stone implements found at Colha were used to cut away vegetation after controlled burning of trees to open areas of swampland for cultivation.

Irrelevant to our argument.

(D) Successor cultures at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site.

Correct. This weakens our conclusion. It is possible that some other civilisation lived in Colha and used these implements 4500 yrs ago, and Mayans were the successor culture of that civilisation so they adopted their style of agricultural implements. Then Mayans may not have lived 4500 years ago and may have just been the successors of another civilisation that lived 4500 years ago.

(E) Many religious and social institutions of the Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago relied on a highly developed system of agricultural symbols.

Irrelevant

Answer (D)
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VeritasKarishma
Thanks for explaining this.
My point in D is that successor culture is one in which people are of same tribe as their predecessors.

Since the people in successor culture belong to same tribe, 4500 years ago people were also Mayans. This is how I thought and eliminated D because it was acting as a strengthener .

Please help.
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"successor culture" means a culture that comes after a previous culture. The two cultures are different. If both are the same culture, how will one be the successor culture of another? They will be the same culture with one person as the successor of another in the same culture.
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Hi VeritasKarishma,

IMO, the stimulus is very tricky to understand.

The stimulus states, 'the implements’ designs are strikingly different from the designs of stone implements produced by other cultures known to have inhabited the area'.

And the answer choice D states, 'Successor cultures at a given site often adopt the style of agricultural implements used by earlier inhabitants of the same site.'

So, going through the thread and for D to be the correct answer choice, it seems Mayans have adopted the style of agriculture implements from a culture not known or different from those described in the stimulus.

Is my understanding correct?

Please help!

Hi VeritasKarishma :

(E) Many religious and social institutions of the Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago relied on a highly developed system of agricultural symbols.

Can't E be interpreted as:
Mayan people who inhabited Colha 3,000 years ago were using these symbols in their religious and social institutions and as these symbols were highly developed, so it may appear that they had preserved these symbols or got from other places . The key point is that these symbols were not used for actual agricultural purpose ( maybe for worship purposes) so it is wrong to assume that there were settlements because of these agriculture symbols.

It maybe possible that Mayan started using these symbols for worship at later purpose, so it is wrong to assume settlements because of these symbols. ( in summary , these symbols don't represent relationship with agricultural practice , hence conclusion of relating settlements with these symbols is wrong)

Please clarify my doubt for E

thanks!

Note the distinction between "area" and "site".
An area could cover a vast region. Other cultures living in that area implies other neighbouring cultures who lived in that area. The argument is telling us that the implements were unique among the implements of those times. Hence, those peculiar implements likely belonged to Mayans which means Mayans could have lived 4500 yrs ago.

Option (D) talks about the site where the implements were found. If Mayans were the successor civilisation of another civilisation at that site, and successor civilisation inherit implements, then the civilisation 4500 yrs ago may not be Mayan. So (D) weakens our conclusion.
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I am not sure I understand the connection. If Mayans used highly developed agricultural symbols for social and religious purposes 3000 yrs ago, it doesn't help us connect or disconnect them from the discovery of agricultural implements found from 4500 yrs ago. There is no discussion of symbols in the argument. The option does not give us whether such symbols were found on the implements of 4500 yrs ago. Hence, new information about 3000 yrs ago without any reference to 4500 yrs ago is pointless.
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