Self-study
Over 40,000 lead seals from the early Byzantine Empire remain today. █████ ████ ███ ████ █████ █████ ███ ████ █████████████ █ ████████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ ███ ███ █████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ █████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████ █████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ████ █ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ████ ██████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the number of early Byzantine documents sealed using a lead seal must have been much more than 40,000. This is based on the fact that there are about 40,000 lead seals remaining today. In addition, most seals had served their purpose when the document was opened. And, once a seal had served its purpose, it would have been recast.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that many documents that were sealed by a lead seal were actually opened. (This overlooks the possibility that the 40,000 lead seals remaining happened to be fixed to the only documents that were written during early Byzantine times and those documents happened to never be opened.)
24.
Which one of the following ███████████ ██ █████ ████ ███████████ ███ █████████
a
Most of the ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ██████ ██████ ████ ███████
This confirms that a large portion of lead seals were on documents that were opened. This would lead to those lead seals being recast, which would suggest the remaining lead seals that were not recast are only a small proportion of the overall lead seals that were created.
b
Most of the ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ █████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████
We care about whether the documents were opened, because that would lead to seals being recast. Whether the documents were destroyed doesn’t tell us whether the documents were opened.
c
The amount of ████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ██████
This tells us there was a lot of lead available for seals in the early Byzantine Empire compared to the lead remaining today. But were many more seals than what remain today actually created during the early Byzantine Empire? (C) doesn’t suggest many more seals were created.
d
During the time ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ █████████ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████
Placing a limit on the number of documents that would have prevented recycling of the seal doesn’t support the author’s conclusion. In fact, if it were possible for 1 million documents that had seals that wouldn’t have been recycled, that would support the author’s conclusion.
e
During the time ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██████ █████ ████ █████ ████ ██████ █████ ███████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ █████ █████
The number of seals that were used simultaneously has no clear impact. The issue is the total number of documents that were sealed during the early Byzantine period; whether they were sealed at a given point in time isn’t relevant.