Question 173·200 Super-Hard SAT Reading Questions·Information and Ideas
Archaeologist Marina Elsen considers two explanations for identical seal motifs on storage jars from several ancient coastal settlements. If one authority manufactured and distributed the jars, both the seals and features of the vessels themselves should be relatively uniform across settlements. If local workshops supplied independent merchants who shared a maritime convention, vessel construction could vary even as markings used in trade remained consistent. Chemical tests trace most jars’ clay to the settlements where they were found, and construction details differ by settlement; meanwhile, the seals are uniform in size and placement but occur mainly on maritime transport jars, not on household vessels from the same communities. Because a widely recognized marking practice could spread either by formal agreement or by imitation, the evidence does not distinguish those possibilities, and no surviving record reveals precisely what information the motifs conveyed.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
For a main-idea question organized around competing explanations, identify each model’s predictions, determine which model best fits the complete evidence, and retain every important limitation on the conclusion. Closely compare options that agree on the broad interpretation but differ in whether they overstate certainty or formal coordination.
Hints
Identify each prediction
Note what each proposed model would lead researchers to expect about the jars and their seals.
Use all the evidence
Consider the local clay, varying construction methods, uniform seals, and concentration of seals on transport vessels together.
Watch the level of certainty
Distinguish evidence for a shared practice from proof that the practice was formally coordinated or had a known meaning.
Step-by-step Explanation
Compare the models’ predictions
The centralized model predicts relative uniformity in both the seals and the vessels. The merchant-network model allows locally variable vessels to carry consistent markings used in maritime trade.
Match the evidence to the models
The jars use local clay and have construction details that vary by settlement, supporting local manufacture. In contrast, the seals remain uniform and occur mainly on maritime transport jars, which is consistent with a shared commercial marking practice.
Retain the qualifications
The passage does not establish that merchants formally coordinated the practice, since imitation could produce the same pattern. It also states that the precise information encoded by the seals is unknown, so the best main idea must preserve both limitations.