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The unification of China in the third century B.C. may have contributed to the rise of a nomadic empire only two decades later in Central Asia. [hl:1]Skilled in archery and horsemanship[/hl:1], nomads formed armies in which every adult male could participate. Political power derived primarily from success in battle against other tribes and in raids on the Chinese, with the successful war chief securing his followers' loyalty by distributing booty. Because the nomadic elite derived power from distributing goods taken from the Chinese, nomadic politics evolved in close association with China. China' s increasing power required that nomads field larger armies themselves, and the prosperity of a united China offered wealth they could extract as payments. This redistribution of wealth generated the political power of nomadic rulers.
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Which statement about nomadic armies is supported by the passage?
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In context, the highlighted phrase serves in part to
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Only since the 1970s have American scholars regularly included mortuary remains in their research on Merovingian Gaul in the early medieval period. Prior to the 1970s, most American medievalists neglected archaeological evidence from burial sites, including skeletal fragments and artifacts, in favor of more familiar historical and documentary sources. This oversight was dismissed by many European scholars as popular distaste in the United States for studies linked to death. Of greater consequence, however, were the small number of American archaeologists occupied with the early medieval period and the inaccessibility to American scholars of locally published and unpublished excavation reports in Western Europe. Lack of attention to important studies of Merovingian mortuary rites was thus not altogether surprising.
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The author suggests that American scholars' lack of attention to Merovingian mortuary remains prior to the 1970s was due in part to the
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The passage suggests which of the following about pre- 1970s research on Merovingian mortuary rites?
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