Past participle modifiers - spin on OG

[ParthJ26]

Dear Sage/Stacey,

Hi! Hope you're doing well.

Sage, we recently had a discussion on March 06, 2018 in which I asked you about the following structure and its uses:

Clause, -ED modifier.

You mentioned that it can act as an adverbial modifier sometimes and modify the action of the previous clause. I have posted a link to the discussion.

I sold my house, convinced that it was the best thing to do.

https://www.manhattanprep.com/gmat/foru ... 34099.html

Today, I came across a question that took me by surprise.

I have rephrased it to avoid any problems.

Many of the earliest known images of Greek deities date from the time of Macedoninan Empire, fashioned either from sandstone or from schist.

The above sentence is NOT the OA.

Here, why does the past participle act as a noun modifier and refer to the Macedonian Empire and NOT act as an adverbial modifier and refer to the entire previous clause?

Would really like your thoughts on this one, Sage sir.

Thanks in advance.

Parth Jain

[Sage Pearce-Higgins]

I know the problem that you're referring to and notice how there is a clear parallelism issue in all the incorrect answer choices that means that you don't need to address the potential modifier problem.

The point about the -ed modifiers is that it depends on context. I'd advise you to know the rules well, but always consider the meaning of the sentence. After all, clarity of meaning is the whole point of good grammar.