Recycling and Reuse of Building Materials in a Historical Landscape—Viminacium Natural Brick (Serbia)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I enjoyed reading this paper and I found very interesting the topic.

I particularly appreciated how the authors highlight the historical use of terracotta and reused building materials as an example of recycling in construction, noting that Roman builders, like many historical builders, probably sought to build buildings as sustainably as possible. The methodology is very clear and positively highlights the work of the authors and the experiments they have done. The discussion was also really pleasant to read, both as regards the methodological analysis and for the historical considerations made by the authors.

I am of the opinion that the introduction needs to be improved, as references and citations are missing in some parts and sometimes it is difficult to read. Strangely, for me the worst part is the abstract as it is difficult to understand for those not familiar with the specific terminology and context of the MoDeCo2000 project and the Roman Danube Limes in Serbia. Furthermore, the abstract does not clearly state the research question, which would help to clarify the purpose of the study and do not provide enough detail about the methods used in the research. If I had not been a reviewer but a reader, I probably would not have continued reading the paper after reading the abstract, and that would have been a pity.

In conclusion, I think the paper is really very nice, that it is pretty much ready in terms of the fundamental aspects (methodology and discussion), but that it needs adjustments in the introduction and abstract.

I leave my comments in detail in the file attached.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

thank you very much for your kind words and support. It really means a lot when the paper is received warmly and gets a positive review. We have tried to correct everything according to your suggestions and add some more data that explain the topics that you highlighted as insufficiently given.  

Our answers are given in the attachment below.

Kind regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article is written on the very interesting topic of reusing and recycling material from the historical landscape. The site which has been used in this study is very important and has historical value. It is  the need of an hour to work on such sites and use historical materials for restoration. This article is well written and can be accepted after a few modifications given below.

1.     Please enhance the abstract with a description of the mortars used at that time.

2.     Why particularly “Viminacium” chosen for this study there huge studies have been published already at very large scale.

3.     Please describe the nearest use of “natural brick” that has been witnessed and please describe briefly how the authors came to understand that the material was being reused.

4.     Other than natural brick what other materials have authors witnessed?

After above-listed comments, the article can be published in this journal.

Author Response

Dear reviewer,

thank you very much for your kind words and support. We have tried to correct everything according to your suggestions and add some more data that explain the topics that you highlighted as insufficiently given. We really appreciate all the given suggestions.  We wrote all answers in the separate document we attach here. Please, see the attachment.

Kind regards

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf