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The environment was deficient in many resources, among them salt, stone, and many other materials.

Could you give me some more examples and explanation about this? Or Could you paraphrase it?

Ancient Civilizations By Dr. Brian Fagan, Chris Scarre

Anfi
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  • Unless I haven't had enough coffee, it's an adjectival phrase that modifies resources. A clause contains both a subject and a verb. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Aug 05 '16 at 18:22
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    It can only be a preposition phrase since it's headed by the preposition "among". Its function in your sentence Is 'supplementary adjunct', though it doesn't fit in any of the usual semantic categories. Supplements are not modifiers, they simply refer to some other element (called the 'anchor') in the main clause. Here, the anchor is the noun phrase "many resources". – BillJ Aug 05 '16 at 20:46
  • thank you both but Why no one answered this question? – Anfi Aug 06 '16 at 08:02
  • I found another example in the book: "Many variables affected trade, among them the demand for goods." it seems that these authors like the way they're doing. https://books.google.com/books?id=M8lwCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA299&dq=%22Many+ever-changing+variables+affected+ancient+trade,+among+them+the+demand+for+goods.+%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj96qnbuKzOAhUGXhQKHU0FBNMQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=%22Many%20ever-changing%20variables%20affected%20ancient%20trade%2C%20among%20them%20the%20demand%20for%20goods.%20%22&f=false – Anfi Aug 06 '16 at 09:11
  • and this: "along with many other industries that were severely affected by the crisis, among them the steel industry" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Mexico – Anfi Aug 06 '16 at 09:14
  • "many industries were affected— financial services among them" https://books.google.com/books?id=5ceaRQNDsW8C&pg=PA37&dq=%22many+industries+were+affected%E2%80%94+financial+services+among+them%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTiYPnuazOAhVCsxQKHVbrAzMQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22many%20industries%20were%20affected%E2%80%94%20financial%20services%20among%20them%22&f=false – Anfi Aug 06 '16 at 09:14
  • @BillJ Of course. Insufficient coffee. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Aug 26 '16 at 07:58

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To paraphrase it:

The environment was lacking many resources such as/some of which were salt, stone, and many other materials.

So the meaning is that there weren't enough resources. Then, some of the missing resources were listed so as to give an example of what kind of resources were missing.

An example sentence I can think of:

There are many vegetables in the salad, among them cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, etc.

Setily
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