Review Reports - Interdisciplinary Analysis of Roman Floor Types in the Villa of Diomedes in the Archaeological Park of Pompeii

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

A well-founded study, with a solid and well-structured methodology and very interesting results based on the cross-referencing of various types of data (historical, architectural and structural engineering).

It would have been very interesting to compare the thickness of the walls that support the type of floors in barrel vaulting with those that support the wooden floors, bearing in mind that one and the other type of system are quite different when it comes to their weight.

It is perhaps a little excessive to speak of the "impossibility of retrace the evolution of the building during its life cycle" (pp. 17-18) when two paragraphs below six building phases of that life cycle are identified based on "material culture along with the study of building techniques, paintings styles, and structural cracking".

Although it is recognised that the old excavations did not record stratigraphic sequences, this type of interdisciplinary study would gain if it were complemented with small punctual surveys to try to define some of the stratigraphic sequences (e.g. near the foundations of some walls) that could bring more information about the life history of the building.

any typos:

caption of Fig. 5a - sloped wooden floors

or sloped wooden roofs ?

pag. 18 - ...by direct measurements ...

or ... by indirect measurements ...?

pag. 20 - The following sections ...

or The following section ... ?

Author Response

The paper has been modified and improved according to reviewers' comments. In particular, the answer to all requests are reported in "R1_Addressing Reviewers comments" .doc file while changes in the manuscript are reported in red in "heritage-2498812-R1" .doc file.
The authors acknowledge the reviewers' for their constructive comments; thanks to their comments the paper quality is strongly improved. The figures quality and resolution has been also strongly improved

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The work presents the analysis of the floor types of Villa of Diomedes (Pompeii archaeological park in the Campania region, Italy) carried out by means of a multidisciplinary approach. As a result of the analyses of different sources in addition to on site surveys and numerical evaluation, a quite comprehensive knowledge of the structural features of the Villa was obtained, particularly with reference to floor typologies and related geometrical parameters. The methods and formulations are described with sufficient details to allow another researcher to reproduce the results.

Although it might be useful to consider further studies carried out on similar structures, located in the same archaeological area and buried due to the Vesuvius eruption, aiming at to compare and confirm the results reached in the paper.

The results are appropriately interpreted and correctly justified in the conclusions, but the Figures, in particular the pictures, are not easy to interpret and understand. In particular in the Figures 2 , 7 and 10 the pictures are too small and dark. The authors are invited to enlarge and lighten them and, in general, to improve the pictures quality.

Author Response

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This research provides valuable information from the fields of archaeology, architecture, and conservation sciences by enhancing knowledge of Roman floor types, contributing to the understanding of the structural behavior of wooden floors and vaults, and by providing careful geometric documentation of the remains preserved in the Villa of Diomedes and their relationship with the models proposed by the treatises of ancient builders. This helps to improve the understanding and valorization of cultural heritage and contributes to the conservation and preservation of historic structures.

Both the approach and the methodology applied are in line with the proposed objectives. However, the relevance of the research project and the impact of the presented results could be significantly improved if several considerations were considered.

#1 The sections at the end of the introductory section are not clearly reflected in the chosen titles.

This paper first describes the Villa of Diomedes (Section 2). Section 3 presents the methodology used to identify and investigate the horizontal structural most signifi-cant parameters. Section 4 analyzes and discusses the data collected from 19 horizontal structures and presents a comparison between their characteristics and those retrieved using literature design (i.e., from the 15th to the 20th centuries) formulations.

To highlight this structure within the body of the text, it is recommended to use the names of these content blocks as the main headings and to introduce concise descriptions in the subheadings.

#2 Since the paper underlines the importance of the multidisciplinary approach, it would be interesting if the introductory section could provide more details of the project of this study: What were its objectives? What are the roles of different research profiles involved? What are the most important achievements and results?

#3 In the methodological section, the measurements collected came from a geometrical study of the remains. What techniques and types of equipment are used to obtain these measurements? Were topographical measurements used? Were they extracted from the 3D register?

#4 These measurements were validated using orthoimages. How were they obtained? Are they orthomosaics extracted from a 3d register, perhaps images rectified based on geometric information? This information is necessary to understand the entire methodological process and to obtain an idea of the margins of error associated with it.

#5 Within this same section, it would also be interesting to have more details or graphical references illustrating how the geometrical survey and topographical data have supported the geometrical calculations in case (b):

As a result, by cross-linking information sources using geometrical surveys and topographical data, and by adding information provided by ortho-images, it was possible to determine the geometrical structural parameters of the vault (Figure 3 - b3).

#6 The thickness of the walls is included in the results section. This, as vaults one, are another measurement whose complexity also depends on the state of conservation of these elements and their constructive characteristics. Can a brief explanation of how they were measured in each case be added to the methodology section?

#7 In the section discussing the results referring to the vaults, the relationship between the data recorded in the Villa of Diomedes and the formulations proposed in the bibliographical sources is presented in detail. To delve deeper into the criteria adopted by Roman builders (one of the objectives of this study) to use one or another design depending on the type of room, could you add some kind of interpretation in this respect that relates their use to the size of the rooms and/or the load they have to support depending on the level of the building in which they are located.

# 8 In the same section, and since it refers to remains preserved - wholly or partially - in situ, could a paragraph be added to highlight the structural strengths and weaknesses of the different formulations from the point of view of their preservation in a general way?

#9 Already in the interdisciplinary knowledge process section. Apart from the photogrammetric recording, whose methodology has been conveniently mentioned, software was used for the final 3D modelling, including the elimination of new parts and reconstruction of non-preserved elements.

#10 In this section, it is mentioned that a 3D model has a certain degree of uncertainty. In cases where a 3D model reflects a constructive hypothesis, it is advisable to use a scale of historical-archaeological evidence for its representation (see, for example, https://doi.org/10.23914/otarq.v0i1.96). It would be illustrative to understand the degree of fidelity referred to by visualizing the 3D model with such a scale.

# 11 In addition, to highlight how the 3D model has contributed to the study of floors, it would be interesting to see more details of the reconstruction of these elements. In particular, a view of the reconstruction of some of the partially excavated or collapsed vaults (such as a section view of rooms 61 to 53 or 73) and floors (e.g., an elevation of unit 63 as seen from the garden) is suggested.

# 12 Finally, it is concluded that the 3D model has been used to support the study of soil parameters and to understand the structural behavior of soils. Two references to these studies are cited: Could you summarize some of the conclusions drawn to illustrate the conclusions they have led to?

Finally, some recommendations for improving the graphic content of the article are provided to highlight the documentary quality behind this project:

#13 Figure 1:

- It is recommended that orthoimages use a graphic scale to reflect their dimensions.

- To understand the structure of the villa, it would be interesting to visualize the plan of its three levels with the delimitation of its zones and spaces (it could be replaced by the Orthoimage).

- It would also be illustrative to delimit in the framework of the Pompeii archaeological park all urban references referred to in the text: The other three villages are located in the area: Villa of Cicero, Villa of the Mosaic Columns, and Villa of the Mysteries. The four Villas are connected by the Sepul-chres Street, which starts from Porta Ercolano and ends at the Villa of the Mysteries".

- To fully describe its location, it would be useful to add a map showing its geographical location within national territory.

#14 Figure 2: Please add its source.

#15 Figure 3: It is recommended to reduce the line spacing to fit the entire table on one page. This provides an overview of the cases presented. Careful with the letters of the sub-sections, in the current figure, they appear divided between lines.

#16 Figures 3 and 4: It is important to take care and homogenize the styles. In these tables, categories and enumerations appear as headers and footers, or are separated into independent cells. It is recommended to select a style and respect it in all representations to provide a neat layout.

#17 Figure 4 (e): This does not clearly reflect the slope recorded during the construction of this roof. Therefore, it would be useful to add an elevation plan.

#18 Figure 9: There are pixelated graphics. These should be replaced by higher-resolution.

Author Response

Author Response File: Author Response.docx