Read the following passage:
In the mid-nineteenth century, archaeology was largely indistinguishable from high-society treasure hunting. Early excavators, driven by the romantic allure of classical ruins, focused their attention almost exclusively on monumental architecture and precious artifacts, discarding the mundane debris of daily life as mere clutter. However, by the turn of the twentieth century, a rhetorical and methodological shift began to reshape the discipline. Pioneers of stratigraphic archaeology argued that the historical value of a site lay not in the market value of its finds, but in the precise spatial relationships between every object and the soil layers surrounding it.
To convince a public accustomed to spectacular museum displays of gold and marble, these reform-minded archaeologists had to alter how they wrote about their work. Instead of adopting the breathless, narrative style of travelogues, they embraced a dry, meticulously cataloged prose. They wrote of broken pottery shards (potsherds) with the same gravity previously reserved for royal tombs. By elevating the mundane through systematic classification, these writers rhetorically framed the soil itself as a dense, historical archive. Every layer of silt was presented as a page in a book, and every fragment of discarded kitchenware as a crucial word. This stylistic transition was not merely a reflection of new techniques; it was a deliberate rhetorical strategy designed to establish archaeology as a rigorous, objective science worthy of academic and public funding.
Which of the following best describes the author's rhetorical perspective regarding the transition in archaeological writing style?
- AIt represented a universal rejection of narrative storytelling across all twentieth-century academic fields.
- It was a purposeful strategy essential for establishing archaeology's status as a legitimate, rigorous science.Cevap
- CIt was a direct consequence of discovering more royal tombs that required cataloging.
- DIt was an unfortunate shift that stripped the field of its romantic appeal and alienated the general public.