Managing the Historical Agricultural Landscape in the Sicilian Anthropocene Context. The Landscape of the Valley of the Temples as a Time Capsule

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

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Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

This is a very good article on managing the historical agricultural landscape in the Sicilian's Valley of the Temples.

There are several small issues which I would suggest to be revised:

a) the abstract has to better show the results of this paper. At the moment it speaks too much about the Anthropocene and less about the findings and what this paper bring new in the current literature;

b)in the introduction the author has to better position this paper in the existing literature and mention what is the added value of the paper or what it brings new in literature;

c)  Because such historical (agricultural) landscapes as the Valley of the Temple could bring value by attracting tourists, I think the author can mention several pieces of works on connecting architectural history to tourism and branding issues from urban and rural areas in Europe and worldwide.

d) Finally, conclusions should shortly mention limitations of the study and how other authors can develop the findings of this study.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

The article has many interesting ideas about,,the landscape as a time capsule,,. However, the article is not easy to read that I recommend:

1. the article does not have a research hypothesis and research question. The author must include them.
2.  the sentence,, The case shows that knowledge 19 of the historical landscape is a particularly useful methodological approach for the definition of new and lasting ecological models of sustainable development,,. it is not enough to provide the added value of the article.  I recommend to details more the ecological models of sustainable development. These are not found in the article.
3. making a table at the section Discussions with the historical periods.
4.   Figure 1 : missing scale, legend and cardinal signs /Figure 2,3: missing scale  and cardinal signs /Figure 3,4: the legend is hard to read.
5. at the conclusions, the authors must present their own conclusion of their study.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The author has engaged with my suggestions carefully and thoughtfully. The new narrative of the archaeology and the history of the area gives very useful context to the discussion, but is cleverly integrated with an account of changing human-environment relationships. This plus some careful rewording elsewhere successfully addresses the problem of an apparently ahistorical understanding of the human-environment relationships in the landscape.

The landscape photos are superb, and demonstrate directly to the reader the scale, complexity and success of this very interesting project.

My points about clarity and argument have been carefully thought about and addressed. The author has added a range of helpful references which give broader support to the argument and the research.

Reviewer 3 Report

The article has been substantially improved.