In 1957 a European silver coin dating to the eleventh century was discovered at a Native American archaeological site in the state of Maine in the United States. Many people believed the coin had been originally brought to North America by European explorers known as the Norse, who traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and came into contact with Native Americans almost a thousand years ago.
However, some archaeologists believe that the coin is not a genuine piece of historical evidence but a historical fake; they think that the coin was placed at the site recently by someone who wanted to mislead the public. There are three main reasons why some archaeologists believe that the coin is not genuine historical evidence.
Great Distance from Norse Settlements
First, the Native American site in Maine where the coin was discovered is located very far from other sites documenting a Norse presence in North America. Remains of Norse settlements have been discovered in far eastern Canada. The distance between the Maine site and the Norse settlements in Canada is more than a thousand kilometers, suggesting the coin has no real connection with the settlements.
No Other Coins Found
A second problem is that no other coins have been found at the Canadian sites that were inhabited by the Norse. This suggests that the Norse did not bring any silver coins with them to their North American settlements.
No Use for European Coins
Third, the Norse who traveled to North America would have understood that silver coins would most likely be useless to them. Silver coins may have been in wide use in Europe at the time, but the Norse, as experienced explorers, would have known that native North Americans did not recognize silver coins as money.
A European silver coin was found at a Native American archaeological site, and it was widely thought to be brought by the Norse people. The reading passage argues that this is not true for a few reasons. However, in the lecture, the speaker implies that the hypothesis on the coin should not be fake.
First, the passage questions the remoteness between the site where people found the coin and other Norse settlements. The speaker indicates that the sites were not necessarily adjacent, as the Native Americans would travel around North American and collect precious things on the route. The speaker also demonstrates that other objects found on the site are possibly from other far sites to defend the original hypothesis.
Second, the passage points out that there are no more coins found on these sites. The speaker explains this with the following scenario. The Norse people would go back to Europe periodically, and they would pack all the valuable things. It is likely that the Norse people took coins from Europe, and took the coins back to their homeland when they went back.
Third, the passage implies that the Native Americans would not see the coins as money. Nevertheless, the speaker argues that the Native could still realize the beautiful shape of the coin, and they might use it as decoration in some jewelry like necklaces. Thus, that the Native did not treat the coin as the current can not rule out the theory that it was traded by the Native and the Norse and brought to the site by the Native.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, nevertheless, second, so, still, third, thus
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 10.0 10.4613686534 96% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 8.0 5.04856512141 158% => OK
Conjunction : 8.0 7.30242825607 110% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 21.0 22.412803532 94% => OK
Preposition: 24.0 30.3222958057 79% => OK
Nominalization: 1.0 5.01324503311 20% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1258.0 1373.03311258 92% => OK
No of words: 262.0 270.72406181 97% => OK
Chars per words: 4.80152671756 5.08290768461 94% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.02323427807 4.04702891845 99% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.36317187655 2.5805825403 92% => OK
Unique words: 133.0 145.348785872 92% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.507633587786 0.540411800872 94% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 384.3 419.366225166 92% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 4.0 1.51434878587 264% => Less conjunction wanted as sentence beginning.
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 37.7901399118 49.2860985944 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 96.7692307692 110.228320801 88% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.1538461538 21.698381199 93% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.38461538462 7.06452816374 76% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.261237896645 0.272083759551 96% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0936512630925 0.0996497079465 94% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0872433178666 0.0662205650399 132% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.167555830658 0.162205337803 103% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0592823572648 0.0443174109184 134% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 11.3 13.3589403974 85% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 59.64 53.8541721854 111% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 9.9 11.0289183223 90% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.56 12.2367328918 86% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.4 8.42419426049 88% => OK
difficult_words: 46.0 63.6247240618 72% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 12.0 10.7273730684 112% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 10.0 11.2008830022 89% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
---------------------
Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.