tkorzhan1995 wrote:
GMATNinja,
Bunuel, could you please provide reasons on the basis of which A should be eliminated?
I chose A originally due to the following rationale:
There are some artifacts in Avaris that are unlike those produced in Ashkelon. Since the are some artifacts that are not similar, it may not be correct to conclude that Hyksos are Canaanites based on the similarity of artifacts.
The question asks us to evaluate the force of the archaeologists' evidence, so take another look at that evidence: "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."
Because "large numbers" of artifacts are virtually identical, the archeologists believe that the Hyksos were originally Canaanites.
Notice that "large numbers" of artifacts doesn't mean ALL artifacts -- it's totally possible that SOME artifacts from Avaris matched those from Ashkelon, while others did not. The presence of some matching artifcats is enough for the archeologists to reach their conclusion.
So, will (A) help us evaluate the force of the evidence?
Quote:
(A) Whether there were some artifacts found at Avaris that were unlike those produced in Ashkelon but that date to before 1700 B.C.
(A) would tell us whether SOME artifacts from before the Hyksos invasion didn't match those produced in Ashkelon.
This really doesn't give us much info at all. Even if we determined that SOME artifacts didn't match before the invasion, it's still possible that other pre-invasion artifacts DID match. This gap is closed by (E), which would be helpful to evaluate the argument.
And again, the archeologists don't necessarily think that ALL artifacts in the Hyksos period matched anyway -- so even if we knew the answer to the question raised in (A), it wouldn't help us compare what happened before and during that period.
For these reasons, (A) isn't the most useful option to help us evaluate the evidence. Eliminate (A).
I hope that helps!