Archaeologist: For 2,000 years the ancient Sumerians depended on irrigation to sustain the agriculture that fed their...

Emil-Kunkin on May 16, 2022

Hi Tyler808,

We are looking to weaken the argument that modern civilizations that rely heavily on irrigation will collapse like the Sumerians did. We are told that the sumerians collapsed because their irrigation led to a buildup in toxic materials in the soil.

(C) Tells us that modern agriculture uses irrigation that avoids the toxic materials in soil. Since it was those toxic materials that led to the fall of sumer, there is no reason to think that irrigation will lead to collapse if it does not leave toxic material in the soil.

While (B) is relevant to the argument, (D) is wrong because of the scope of the argument. The conclusion only concerns modern civilization that rely on irrigation for agriculture. Maybe some civilizations do not use irrigation, but the argument is not about those civilizations, only the ones that do use irrigation.