PONE-D-20-19442

The origins of money: Calculation of similarity indexes demonstrates the earliest development of commodity money in prehistoric Central Europe

PLOS ONE

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All comments have to be addressed before re-submission.

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: This is an interesting paper that draws significant conclusions for the history of metrology and for Bronze Age Europe based on an original analysis of data from hoards of rings, ribs and axes.

I have a few comments and queries. It's because of my queries below that I've answered 'partly' toQ1.

l 79 Weighing was thus a qualitative measurement based on comparative sensory.

Better to say 'would have been' rather than 'was', which already implies that weight mattered.

l 95-6 As a general rule, the Weber fraction for weight discrimination is 0.1

Give a numerical example for clarity

l 101-103 The perceptive equivalence is expressed though the calculation of a similarity index (SI), which gives the percentage of objects from a dataset that are perceptibly indistinguishable from a tested object.

Would help to give a worked example in the main text and also to explain why the similarity index method is necessary, as opposed to simply plotting the distribution, identifying the mode and the Weber fraction range around it and saying what proportion are indistinguishable.

l 117 similarity index of 58.5%

Hard to get a sense of how these indices relate to the Weber fraction. Spell out more?

l 132 randomly distributed data

Doesn't say the form of distribution used to randomly generate the data or why. Uniform? Normal? Again a more detailed description with a worked example would help.

Reviewer #2: This very interesting paper reinforces what many of us have long suspected: that estimation of quantities (including weight) was a matter of perception rather than precise measurement. I am not familiar with the Weber fraction but from your presentation it appears to have been employed usefully.

Four other discussions of rings and ribs, not included in the references, might be included:

Menke, M. 1978–9. Studien zu den frühbronzezeitlichen Metalldepots Bayerns, Jahresbericht der bayerischen

Bodendenkmalpflege 19–20, 5–305.

Eckel, F. 1992. Studien zur Form- und Materialtypologie von Spangenbarren und Ösenringbarren, zugleich ein Beitrag zur

Frage der Relation zwischen Kupferlagerstätten, Halbzeugproduktion und Fertigwarenhandel. Saarbrücker Beiträge zur

Altertumskunde 54. Bonn: Habelt.

Bath-Bílková, B. 1973. K problému puvodu hriven, Památky Archeologické 64, 24–41.

Harding, A. 1983. The Bronze Age in central and eastern Europe: advances and prospects, Advances in World Archaeology

2, 1–50.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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The origins of money: Calculation of similarity indexes demonstrates the earliest development of commodity money in prehistoric Central Europe

PONE-D-20-19442R1

Dear Dr. Kuijpers,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Peter F. Biehl, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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