Vitreous Tesserae from the Four Seasons Mosaic of the S. Aloe Quarter in Vibo Valentia–Calabria, Italy: A Chemical Characterization
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The scientific interest of this study is low and it is difficult to identify innovative aspects.
These data should had been published together with the previous one (Barca et al., 2019). I see a clear example of Salami Slicing. It is the same study and the results very similar.
The same authors are trying to publish, using similar materials (Tesserae) of the same site, excavated in the same year (2018) employing the same analytical methods in the same journal.
Vitreous tesserae from the Four Seasons Mosaic of S. Aloe quarter in Vibo Valentia – Calabria, Italy: a chemical characterization
Authors
Elia Fiorenza , Natalia Rovella , Maria D'andrea , Marianna Musella , Fabrizio Sudano , Armando Taliano Grasso , Donatella Barca *
In 2019 they have already published in Minerals about the same stuff:
Barca, D., Fiorenza, E., D’Andrea, M., Le Pera, E., Musella, M., Sudano, F., Taliano Grasso, A. Chemical and Petrographic Characterization of Stone and Glass Tesserae in the Nereid and Geometric Mosaics from the S. Aloe Quarter in Vibo Valentia–Calabria, Italy. Minerals, 2019, 9,12, 372 729 doi:10.3390/min9120729www.mdpi.com/journal/minerals.
Author Response
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Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
General remarks.
The introduction to the article is quite descriptive, which is more characteristic of archaeological articles and not technical ones.
Large data tables make it difficult to understand the essence of the article. Perhaps for each color of the mosaic one typical sample is enough.
substantive comments
Table 1. The color of the sample depends on many parameters (for example, the spectral composition of the radiation incident on the sample), the reflection or transmission spectra give more objective color information. If possible, add such graphics to the article.
It is also not very clear how the samples of the same color differ? Do you assume that these are different pieces taken from one crucible of glass? Or are these different syntheses?
Do you associate the different contents of the main components of glass with the imperfection of the synthesis technology, or is it associated with different places of production of these glasses?
Figure 3. Data is located in a small part of the graph. Change the limits on the abscissa and ordinates.
Explain the choice of iron and copper oxides. Why do you assume that there is, for example, FeO and not Fe2O3. Usually, both valencies of iron are present in glass. Also, copper in glass can be in the form of metal clusters. And what is the component of ClO? Typo? Do you assume that MnO, PbO, CuO, Sb2O5, SnO2, P2O5, ClO are impurities in glass?
Were opacifying agents added to the glass additionally, or were they the result of crystallization from a molten glass upon cooling? DTA data can verify this.
“The colours of glass are strictly correlated to the concentrations of colouring agents.” The article does not contain data on the dependence of color and concentration of the coloring agent.
The microcrystals of Pb-Sn-antimonates have been detected in the yellow tesserae testifying that they are responsible for QsG1’s typical colour. The article does not contain evidence that the yellow color of the sample is associated with Pb-Sn-antimonates. The addition of lead oxide to silicate glass leads to a shift in the fundamental absorption edge to the long-wavelength region of the spectrum.
Ð art of the conclusions duplicate sentences from the introduction.
Author Response
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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The authors of the present manuscript reported an interesting analysis of vitreous tesserae from the Four Seasons, a Roman mosaic in Vibo Valentia (Calabria, Italy). This work aimed at identifying the chemical composition of the tesserae (flux, colourants and opacifiers) and the technology of production. To reach this goal, the authors employed two analytical techniques, namely EPMA-WDS and laser ablation coupled with ICP-MS, on several vitreous tesserae samples with different colours and shades.
Overall, the paper is well written: the context of the study is described in detail in the introduction section; the results are scientifically sound, as also their discussion, and they could be valuable for the Cultural Heritage field of work/research.
However, I suggest few minor revisions before I can recommend for the publication of this work on Minerals. In the following, I list my questions/concerns that aim at improving the quality of the manuscript.
- According to the authors (supported by the previous works of Freestone), there were five glass production sites in the Mediterranean area. From your chemical/mineralogical results, are you able to associate the vitreous tesserae you analysed to one of these sites?
- What is the depth of the craters generated with laser ablation? In other terms, what is the (mean) volume of vaporized material, according to your experimental setting?
- (Page 11, Table 3) This table could be subdivided in two separate tables to improve the readability of the data. The first table could contain the transition metals/trace elements concentration, while the second one the rare-Earth elements.
- (Page 12, line 236) The graph reported in Figure 6 is not a spider diagram (or radar chart).
Finally, the manuscript text needs some minor English corrections. To aid the authors, I have attached a commented PDF with the required amendments.
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
Author Response
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Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
I disagree with the authors and still think that the two mosaics analytical data should have been published in just one paper. This second part may submitted to another journal like Heritage MDPI journal.
Author Response
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Reviewer 2 Report
Add to the table 1 description L* for the lightness from black (0) to white (100), a* from green (−) to red (+), and b* from blue (−) to yellow (+)
Do you assume that MnO, PbO, CuO, Sb2O5, SnO2, P2O5, ClO are impurities in glass? I mean, were these components added to the glasses specifically during the synthesis (for example, as a dye), or are they impurities that got into the melt with the main components? If these are impurities, then their composition is usually similar for one field and can serve as an identification of the place from which this reagent was obtained.
Author Response
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