PONE-D-21-23375

Cattle management in an Iron Age/Roman settlement in the Netherlands: archaeozoological and stable isotope analysis

PLOS ONE

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Additional Editor Comments:

Please address all comments.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

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

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I recommend this excellent research for publication, with a few suggestions that are at the discretion of the authors. The piece stands well as it is.

My comments:

Clear, informative, and novel

Situates this site into the developing understanding of animal rearing, seasonality, and landscape in the region

Nicely describes relevant background during the introduction but stays focused

Specific enough for specialists but still described clearly- could avoid some words such as hypsodont, etc. but overall very clear., especially the isotope descriptions. The article is primarily interesting for a specialist audience but clear enough that non-specialists can understand the implications of the research

Cites ample and relevant studies, identifies gaps

Clearly describes methods, follows standard procedures

Page 8 Line 97: authors meaning of the previous study or this paper (or perhaps they are the same)?

Page 10 Line 250: adding the word “either” before cheese and a comma after herb could help clarify this sentence

Page 10 Line 254: suggestion of an additional sentence summarizing the organic residue evidence for dairy—present but not ubiquitous? Not well enough studied to establish a pattern? This could be highlighted in the discussion-residue and archaeozoological remains indicate some milk exploitation, but it was not the focus? Re-establishing these findings within the new isotope findings might be impactful

If there is space, I would like to see it come back to self-sufficiency and household-level exploitation of milk, or some ideas about why there was a shift towards decreased birthing season/prominence of milk exploitation at the end of the paper, or why this study matters more broadly. Take the conclusion one step bolder and broader

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Reviewer #1: No

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Cattle management in an Iron Age/Roman settlement in the Netherlands: archaeozoological and stable isotope analysis

PONE-D-21-23375R1

Dear Dr. Groot,

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.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Peter F. Biehl, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

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

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: All comments were addressed. This article is a substantial contribution to the field and follows rigorous scientific standards, explained in clear terms and connected to broader impacts.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No