A carved flint object depicting a stylized human head with an open mouth was found in a Stone Age tomb in Ireland. ████ ██████████████ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ █ ████████████ ████ ██ █ █████████ ██████████ ██ ██ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ ████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ██ █ ████████ ██████ █ ████████ ██████ ██████ ██████ █ █████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ██ ██████
The author hypothesizes that the carved flint object was the head of a speaking staff. This is based on the size of the object and how it looks like a human head with an open mouth, which symbolizes speaking. In addition, a competing hypothesis — that the object was the head of a warrior’s mace — isn’t reasonable because the object is too small to be a weapon.
The author assumes that there’s no other applicable explanation for the object’s purpose besides that it was the head of a speaking staff.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ █████ ████ ██████ ███ █████████
The tomb in █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███ ███████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████████
Communal objects were ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████████
The object was ██████ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █████ ███ ████████
The tomb in █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████████ █████████ ███████
A speaking staff ████ █ █████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ █████████ █ █████████ █████