Which choice most logically completes the text?

|Question 16Verbal

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Archaeologists assume that when a major demographic shift interrupts the intergenerational transmission of expertise, this manifests in the archaeological record in the form of simultaneous reductions in the complexity of multiple specialized crafting traditions. Inventories of excavation sites from the Alazani River valley and nearby areas dating from 4000 to 500 BCE show a steep drop occurring around 1500 BCE in the number of objects featuring gold filigree, an advanced technique in which fine threads of gold are arranged in intricate patterns. The inventories also indicate that advanced copper-alloy metallurgy and most other specialized crafting traditions continued to flourish during this period, a finding suggesting that ______

disruptions around 1500 BCE in the utilization of gold filigree likely occurred in the context of demographic continuity among peoples of the Alazani River valley.

a sudden simultaneous decline in artifacts from multiple specialized crafting traditions is less likely than previously assumed to indicate that the transmission of expertise was disrupted by demographic changes.

peoples in the Alazani River valley continued to uphold multiple specialized crafting traditions, including goldsmithing and copper-alloy metallurgy, even as demographic shifts occurred.

cross-cultural transmission between distinct demographic groups in the Alazani River valley likely explains the expansion of copper-alloy metallurgy beginning around 1500 BCE.