Critical Reasoning

Archaeologists recently unearthed a prehistoric
statuette, portraying the figure of a woman, that
had been carved from a mastodon bone. A team
of researchers carefully studied the statuette,
which they named the Venus of Orleans. Since it
was similar in shape and design to another bone
carving, the so-called Venus of Grenoble, they
concluded that in all likelihood it was carved at
the same time, about 70,000 years ago.
Skeptics point out, however, that carbon-14
testing indicates that the recently discovered
statuette is only about 50,000 years old.
Which of the following, if true, would tend most
to weaken the force of the skeptics' objection?
(A) Carbon-14 dating places the age of the
Venus of Grenoble at 70,000 years.
(B) No other, similar, statuettes have been
found at the site where the Venus of
Orleans was unearthed.
(C) The carbon-14 dating process is unreliable
for objects dating from before 60,000 BC.
(D) The carbon-14 dating process has
provided unreliable dates for many objects
older than 100,000 years.
(E) Some speculation persists that the Venus
of Orleans was carved out of the femur or
thigh bone of a prehistoric ox.