Question

1. the first great english dictionary writer, samuel johnson, suggested around 1755 that books record all we can know about history, expressing no perception about what of the past could be recorded through physical remains. archeology was then defined as what could be gleaned about general ancient history from texts. it was only gradually expanded over the next century to include the study of material remains. troys role in that changing perception should not be underestimated. according to the oxford english dictionary, one of the first uses of the word archeology in english occurs in 1607 with archaiology of the jews, but it was mostly about texts and general antiquity. by 1872 the dictionary said, archaeology displays old structures and buried relics of the remote past. this evolution of the word is confirmed by 1880, after troys seminal excavations, when we read, the archeologists have raised the study of antiquities to the level of a science. suddenly with troy - where heinrich schliemann was searching for an ancient lost city - and related methodological excavations, there was a huge watershed change. archeology became both a merging and redividing of the old discipline of ancient history, reading ancient texts, and the new discipline,reading what was in the very ground. now the ancient materials themselves, the buried past, formed the new focus of archeology. 4. by approaching troy and other ancient places in a new way, pioneering archeologists set about proving hypotheses that a given ancient city existed rather than just plundering a site for its antiquities. in this way troy served a higher purpose: it was necessary to engage the skeptical academic world with material evidence. schliemann is surrounded by a swirl of controversy today. but what is often forgotten is that he heralded a whole new era, in which material artifacts buried for millennia have a story to tell. in schliemanns case, his version of the story may not be reliable, but the heart and soul of archeology is the reconstruction of the past from its material remains. thus, schliemann and his early work at troy deserve credit for drawing the worlds attention to troy as a history instead of troy as simply myth. 5. although it has been much debated over the past few generations since he first excavated troy, part b select one detail from paragraph 3 that best supports the answer in part a?

Explanation:

The paragraph discusses the evolution of archaeology as a discipline, its changing definitions over time, and the role of Troy in its development. The key - detail that supports the overall understanding is the shift in focus of archaeology to the study of material remains. The sentence "Now the ancient materials themselves, the buried past, formed the new focus of archeology" best captures this change and is a significant detail in the context of the paragraph's main ideas.

Answer:

Now the ancient materials themselves, the buried past, formed the new focus of archeology.