argument33 超越自我小组作业~~~

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TOPIC: ARGUMENT33 - The following report appeared in an archaeology journal.

"The discovery of distinctively shaped ceramic pots at various prehistoric sites scattered over a wide area has led archaeologists to ask how the pots were spread. Some believe the pot makers migrated to the various sites and carried the pots along with them; others believe the pots were spread by trade and their makers remained in one place. Now, analysis of the bones of prehistoric human skeletons can settle the debate: high levels of a certain metallic element contained in various foods are strongly associated with people who migrated to a new place after childhood. Many of the bones found near the pots at a few sites showed high levels of the metallic element. Therefore, it must be that the pots were spread by migration, not trade."
WORDS: 360          TIME: 00:29:34          DATE: 2008-8-13 下午 04:51:30

There are not enough evidences to support the assertion of the topic.

Firstly, I am sure that those bones of people who didn't migrated for the whole life should also contain high level of that certain metallic element. Therefore, there is possibility that the certain type of metallic element widely existed in the various sites where the pots are found. Meanwhile, those recognized bones belong to the local people of those areas, and there may be no relationship between the owners of the bones and the pots. There need to be a further research of the bones of the adjacent area to see that if the metallic element is allover and if there are bones containing the metallic element that is not near the pots.
Secondly, there is also an question about the connection between the migration of the people and the bones. That is to say, even if the bones belong to the migrators, it is not necessary to say that the pots are brought by them. The passage lacks the description of other types of pots. Maybe there were only one type of pot in that area in that age. And all people had to use them. And then finding pots near the bones are quite normal in that case, as pots were possibly important to everybody in that age. As it happens in the prehistory age, we are not told that whether there was business in that time. And maybe the migrators loved to use that type of pots and even they migrated to other areas they had to buy those pots from the businessman. It is hard to discriminate. We need more information about the trade in the area in that age.
And maybe the bones are buried with the pots. As the pots may be rare in that age, they might be treated as treasure and buried with nobles. And if the nobles are born at the same place that has those metallic element and they travel to various places and died there, that would fit the discovery of the passage.

To conclude, the passage needs to provide more information to exclude those possibilities and assure the connection of the evidence and the conclusion.

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