Passage:
Archaeologists studying Neolithic trade networks in the Western Mediterranean have long debated the mechanism by which Lipari obsidian was distributed across Sardinia and coastal Etruria between 5000 and 4000 BCE. Traditional models posited a directional 'down-the-line' gift exchange system, in which obsidian artifacts passed sequentially through adjacent coastal settlements, diminishing exponentially in quantity with distance from the Lipari source. Proponents of this model argued that uniform reductions in bladelet size and high proportions of unworked core fragments at inland sites reflected local, non-specialized knapping of scarce material acquired through casual barter.
However, recent compositional analyses of obsidian assemblages at several inland Etrurian sites challenge this view. Researchers found that while raw obsidian nodules were indeed rare in these inland communities, finished obsidian blades exhibited remarkably standardized width-to-thickness ratios identical to those recovered from primary maritime workshop sites near Lipari. Furthermore, microscopic microwear analysis revealed that inland blades were almost exclusively utilized for high-precision tasks such as leatherworking rather than general domestic cutting. Based on these findings, Dr. Aris Thorne asserts that Lipari obsidian was not dispersed through informal down-the-line exchange, but was instead distributed via specialized merchant maritime cabotage directly supplying inland elites who commissioned specialized tools.
Which of the following, if true, would most weaken Dr. Thorne's assertion regarding the distribution mechanism of Lipari obsidian?
- The standardized width-to-thickness ratio observed in obsidian blades is an unavoidable geometric artifact of basic pressure-flaking techniques routinely practiced by non-specialized household craftspeople across the region.Cevap
- BMicroscopic microwear patterns on non-obsidian flint tools from the same inland sites indicate that flint was used primarily for coarse, non-specialized domestic cutting.
- CExcavations of maritime trade vessels dating to two millennia later show that bulk transport cabotage was the primary method of distributing agricultural commodities in the Mediterranean.
- DThe total volume of obsidian artifacts recovered from inland Etrurian sites is substantially smaller than the total volume recovered from coastal sites closer to Lipari.
- EFinished obsidian blades were occasionally included among grave goods in non-elite communal burial mounds across coastal Etruria.