Self-study
Archaeologist: How did the Parthenon's stonemasons manage to carve columns that all bulged outward in the center in precisely the same way. ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ██ █ ██████ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ██████████ ██ █ █████ █████ █████ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ███████ █████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ███ ███████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ███████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the stonemasons who made the Parthenon’s columns may have relied on a scale drawing of a column. This is because a scale drawing of a column for the temple at Didyma was discovered, and this drawing made it possible to determine the correct width at every height of column, which is something that we observe in the columns of the Parthenon.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the stonemasons who made the Parthenon used methods that were similar in at least some ways to the methods used by the stonemasons who made the temple at Didyma. The author also assumes that there was nothing about the columns at the Parthenon that could have prevented scale drawings from being useful in making the columns.
2.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████████ ███████████
a
Modern attempts to ████████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ███████████
Whether later attempts have been successful doesn’t shed light on what the original stonemasons used to make the columns.
b
The construction of ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ███ █████ ████ █ ███████ █████ ███ █████████ ███ ████████████
This just points out a difference between the Parthenon and the temple at Didyma. It opens the possibility that scale drawings may not have been around when the Parthenon was created, but only came about later.
c
Scale drawings were ████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██ ████████████ ██ ███████ ███████
This strengthens the author’s conclusion by making it more plausible that scale drawings were used for the Parthenon. It establishes that the scale drawings used for the temple at Didyma were not just a rare, unique method.
d
The surviving columns ██ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████
The relative height of the columns doesn’t shed light on what the stonemasons who made the Parthenon used.
e
The Parthenon's stonemasons ███ ████████████ ██████████ ███████ ███████ ██████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ██████████
The level of experience of the stonemasons doesn’t have any clear impact on whether they used scale drawings or not.