-->PONE-D-26-04315-->-->Genetic histories of individuals from multi-faith medieval Sicily-->-->

PLOS One

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Academic Editor

PLOS One

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Additional Editor Comments:

We have now received evaluations from two independent reviewers, and I have carefully considered their comments alongside my own reading of the work.

Your manuscript is of clear scientific interest and the addition of a substantial number of new samples for these historical periods in Sicily represents a meaningful contribution to the field. The overall sampling distribution, while not fully exhaustive, constitutes a solid and commendable step forward relative to previously published datasets.

Based on this assessment, I invite you to submit a Minor Revision of your manuscript. Please find the full reports of both reviewers appended below. While one reviewer has raised more extensive concerns than the other, I consider the core issues to be addressable within the scope of a minor revision.

I look forward to receiving your revised submission.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

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

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: 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 have accepted to review of the article "Genetic histories of individuals from multi-faith medieval Sicily" (PONE-D-26-04315), which aims to address a topic of great archaeological and anthropological interest: the population composition and relationships between individuals of different ethnic origins, cultures, and religions in medieval and late-medieval Sicily.

Sicily has long attracted the interest of those who approach archaeo-demographic issues with molecular methodologies, and in fact it is one of the most studied regions in the Mediterranean and Europe. This study bases many of its discussions precisely on these previous bibliographical findings, confirming an extraordinary genetic complexity and the establishment, in some geographical parts of the island, of veritable melting pots "ante litteram," a sign that population fluidity was considerable, not only during the Punic and Roman eras, but well before. The hunter-gatherer Sicily was shaped by the Neolithic movement, partly by the Iranian movement, and later by the Steppe movements. These events set the stage and make it difficult to discuss subsequent contributions from the Near and Middle East.

The article's intent is laudable, and the project's results are likely eagerly awaited.

The article examines a significant number of individuals, spread across a vast array of archaeological sites, some decidedly urban (with complex cultural dynamics—Palermo itself, in different neighborhoods, has different dynamics), and others rural. Dating reveals multigenerational distributions in cemeteries, and things can change significantly in four to eight generations. The geographic distribution of the sites is not representative of the island's complexity and its population and multicultural distribution. The problem is mainly objective: medieval Sicily has often been excavated with unsystematic approaches and studied, both archaeologically and anthropologically, with outdated approaches and models.

It follows, therefore, that, upon closer inspection, the sampling is poorly representative, not only for Christian burials, as the authors themselves admit in their conclusions, but also for Islamic sites or those presumed to be Islamic.

The article thus turns itself into a series of "minimal histories," especially for the more exotic individuals, and this is interesting and will be useful for other and subsequent studies. The minimal histories are important (although I wouldn't be so impressed by African provenances. Movement from the continent in prehistoric, protohistoric, classical, Late A. and medieval times is, in fact, already documented).

From a methodological standpoint, the article is conducted with rigor and with adequate molecular analysis and bioinformatics tools, but it lacks effective resolution in reconstructing the aforementioned minimal histories and generational relationships. A cross-approach with the study of Strontium and Oxygen isotopes would have been very useful, as well as, wanting to focus the work on individuals, an effort at phenotypic characterization for the individuals with the greatest and most effective coverage, would have been intriguing.

I found the reading frankly laborious. I therefore recommend a significant revision of the text's prose and figure legends.

I would give more substance to the "Global Perspectives" paragraph, which is confirmatory. I would also rewrite the "Medieval Connections with Sub-Saharan Africa," which has more difficult or misleading periods (Is Ghana not in West Africa?), and I would revise the discussion on Admixture.

I suggest inserting a table in the main text that includes the variety of mitochondrial and Y characterizations by individual, archaeological provenance, and 14C.

The authors sometimes use the term "Phoenician," but there is abundant evidence, especially archaeological and now molecular, that the Phoenicians (strictly speaking) have very little to do with it, and I personally recommend avoiding it.

I may be mistaken, but some authors appear in the acknowledgements. I would reword the paragraph itself.

The article, despite the above considerations, is original, has useful results, and meets the required criteria. Therefore, the article is acceptable after a thorough review.

Reviewer #2: The manuscript “Genetic histories of individuals from multi-faith medieval Sicily” presents an ancient DNA study of medieval Sicily, a region of major historical and geopolitical importance due to its position at the crossroads in the Mediterranean area. By analyzing 111 individuals, the study addresses a significant gap in the literature by focusing on relatively recent historical periods using ancient genomic methodologies.

Overall, the manuscript is well written, the research question is timely, and the dataset represents a valuable contribution to Mediterranean population history.

I have only a few minor comments:

- line 149: please report additional decimal places where possible. Value expressed as 0.00X are not sufficiently informative

- Lines 307–308: even if reported elsewhere in the manuscript, please also indicate here the number of individuals included in this analysis.

- Lines 383–384: are you referring here to the individuals who yielded sufficient mitochondrial and/or nuclear data? Please clarify this point to avoid ambiguity

- Line 532: please refer to the Supplementary Materials for further details on the protocols used.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Genetic histories of individuals from multi-faith medieval Sicily

PONE-D-26-04315R1

Dear Dr. Wales,

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,

Marta Maria Ciucani, 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

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

Reviewer #1: Yes

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-->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

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-->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

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-->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: The revision requests have been accomplished. I have not further requests to the authors. The manuscript is acceptable in the present form.

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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.

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Reviewer #1: No

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