Palaeoethnobotanists analyzing plant remains at Epipalaeolithic sites in the Levant have proposed that early Natufian foragers engaged in intentional cultivation of wild barley long before morphological domestication took place. Proponents of this view point to the disproportionate density of barley caryopses relative to other wild seeds as indication of deliberate sowing. However, fossilized remains of granary weevils (*Sitophilus granarius*), obligate grain pests that thrive exclusively in bulk-stored crops, are entirely absent from these archaeological strata. Because these pests proliferate rapidly in agricultural storage facilities but cannot sustain populations among unharvested wild stands, their absence indicates that gathered grains were consumed immediately rather than stored for seed stock. Consequently, the high concentration of barley caryopses more likely reflects opportunistic harvesting of dense, naturally occurring stands following seasonal rains.
Which sentence in the passage presents empirical evidence used to challenge the hypothesis that early Natufian foragers intentionally cultivated wild barley?
Cevap: However, fossilized remains of granary weevils (*Sitophilus granarius*), obligate grain pests that thrive exclusively in bulk-stored crops, are entirely absent from these archaeological strata. / However, fossilized remains of granary weevils (Sitophilus granarius), obligate grain pests that thrive exclusively in bulk-stored crops, are entirely absent from these archaeological strata. / However, fossilized remains of granary weevils, obligate grain pests that thrive exclusively in bulk-stored crops, are entirely absent from these archaeological strata.