Archaeologists excavating a Neanderthal campsite

Answer choices

1. A

   Mixed Impact6% picked this

   Neanderthals hunted a wide variety of both migratory and

   For a group to hunt a migratory animal would potentially support the idea that the group itself is migratory / nomadic. Its hard to hunt a species that migrates if you just return to the same address every night. However, you could certainly be sedentary and hunt a migratory animal during the season when it rolls through your hood. Similarly, hunting a nonmigratory animal makes it sound like you stay put in one area. But you could be a nomad and just happen to hunt the nonmigratory animals that are local to whatever area you're passing through. Since this answer suggests both that Neanderthals were and weren't nomads, it doesn't really have any clear impact on the conversation.

   6%
2. B

   No Impact / Weak6% picked this

   Cro-Magnons and Neanderthals sometimes exchanged

   Words that only connote one data point (like some, sometimes, may, could, can, possible, not always, need not) are almost always wrong on Strengthen / Weaken / Paradox / Sufficient Assumption. Even if the language were stronger than "at least one time they exchanged tools", this still wouldn't have any impact. Who cares if they exchange tools? That doesn't give us an alternate explanation for the year's supply of gazelle teeth, nor does it impugn the story that Neanderthals lived at this camp year round, hunting gazelle.

   6%
3. C

   Correct68% picked this

   Neanderthals saved gazelle teeth for use in religious rituals and later

   Why this is right

   Here's the Alternate Explanation we were looking for. This let's us argue that, "Neanderthals were nomads. They weren't living at this campsite year round. The real reason there was a year's supply of gazelle teeth at this site is that the Neanderthals would save teeth as they roamed around hunting, and then they would use them in religious ceremonies, and then discard them." So this is allowing us to say, "Maybe we found a year's worth of teeth at this campsite because the Neanderthals had one of their famous tooth-laden religious rituals here and then discarded the year's worth of teeth when they shipped out of town toward their next destination." Pretty crazy, right? There's a lot of story we have to fill-in here to understand how this answer works. It's very important that we understand the Explain Curious Fact template so that we're actively listening for Alternate Explanations, because otherwise it's pretty impossible to understand what value this answer could have for us.

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   68%
4. D

   No Impact10% picked this

   Cro-Magnons usually followed the migrations of the animals

   We're not concerned about what the Cro-Magnons did. We know they were nomads and so the fact that they followed migratory animals sounds totally on-brand.

   10%
5. E

   Strengthens10% picked this

   Gazelles inhabited the area around the

   This helps the plausibility of the author's hypothesis. If there weren't gazelles near this campsite year-round, it would make the author's story sound impossible: how could the Neanderthals be living at this campsite and hunting gazelle year round if there are at least some parts of the year when there are no gazelles around?

   10%