Self-study
P1
Through years of excavations and careful analysis of her finds around Krasnyi Yar in Kazakhstan, archaeologist Sandra Olsen has assembled what may be evidence of the earliest known people to have domesticated and ridden horses, a momentous development in human history. ███
Intro to Topic ·
Olsen found evidence of earliest domestication of horses for riding?
Phenomenon ·
Large number of horse bones in pit houses of the Botai people
Phenomenon ·
Unclear if horses were domesticated or wild
Cannot tell difference just by looking at the bones.
Method ·
Statistical tabulations
Olsen used statistics to find patterns that might distinguish between domestication or wild.
P2
Exclude Alternate Hypothesis ·
Domesticated horses for food?
Because if domesticated for food, wouldn't find that many fully grown male horses and most of the bones were exactly that.
Alternate Hypothesis ·
Wild horses hunted for food?
That would explain the large proportion of males since hunters like to hunt bigger animals for more food.
Exclude Alternate Hypothesis ·
Proportion of adult males is too high
Because if the Botai hunted horses, they would target families, not groups of males.
Phenomenon ·
Why were young males not culled?
Hypothesis ·
Because the horses were domesticated for riding
P3
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Evidence for Hypothesis ·
Remains include full skeletons
This is also inconsistent with the hunting hypothesis because hunters presumably would have only brought the meat and not the full skeletons back.
Evidence for Hypothesis ·
Burial patterns
Horses were buried in carefully arranged patterns which suggests a closer relationship with the Botai, consistent with the riding hypothesis.
Passage Style
Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)
Single position
11.
Based on the discussion in ███ ████████ ███ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████
a
Developing mortality patterns █████ ██ ██ ███████████ ██ █████████ ██████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ██ █████████ ███████ █ ███████████ ███████ ████████████ ████████
Saying that it’s “always required” is too strong. Although mortality patterns were used in this case, that doesn’t imply that they always need to be used in order to establish whether a prehistoric culture domesticated animals.
b
An analysis of ████████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██ ████████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████████████ █████ ████ ███ ████ ████
Too strong. We have no reason to think that corroboration by evidence at a similar site is required in order for evidence at another site to be conclusive. Just because Olsen examined multiple sites does not imply that one always needs to examine multiple sites in order for the conclusions from one site to be reliable.
c
Any prehistoric culture ████ ███████████ ████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ ████ ███████ █ ████ █████ ██ ██████ █████████████
Not supported, because the author doesn’t suggest that the Botai’s potential arranging of horse bones implies a “high level of social organization.” The author suggests the arranging implies a purpose beyond just hunting, but this doesn’t require any belief about the social organization of the Botai society.
d
The interpretation of ██████████████ █████ ██ ███████████ █████ █████ ████████ █ █████████████ ██ █████ ██████ █████ ████ ███ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████
The word “often” is important in this answer; if it had said “always,” (D) would not be supported.
e
The morphological differences ███████ ████ ███ ████████████ ███████████ ███████ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ████████████ ████ ███████
Not supported, because the author doesn’t make any claims about the relative ease or difficulty of domesticating some animals over others.