Reviewer comment

Authors reply

When describing the method, the authors indicated the R and IDE RStudio versions. However, no versions of additional R packages are provided. The version numbers of the MVN and vegan add-on packages must be specified. This is important from the point of view of the reproducibility of the technique.

We wrote the package versions in the text of the article: version 2.5-6 for vegan package and version 5.8 for MVN package.

For the NPMANOVA method, the name of the function used from the vegan package is given. However, for the rest of the statistical tests, the names of the functions used are not given. It is necessary to bring the description to uniformity. For all statistical tests, by analogy with NPMANOVA, you need to give the names of the functions used.

We have written the names of the functions used.

Fragment of corrected text:

«The second and third tests were performed with standard R tools. For the Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance, the kruskal.test function was used. For the Mann-Whitney test the pairwise.wilcox.test function was used»

For statistical tests NPMANOVA and Doornik-Hansen, the authors provide links to the publications of primary sources. At the same time, for other statistical tests, references to publications of primary sources are not given. It is necessary to achieve uniformity in the description of the methodology. For the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, you must also provide links to the original sources.

We have inserted bibliographic references to primary sources:

Kruskal, W.H.; Wallis, W.A. Use of ranks in one-criterion variance analysis. Journal of the American Statistical Association. 1952, 47, 583-621

Mann, H.B.; Whitney, D.R. On a test of whether one of two random variables is stochastically larger than the other. Annals of Mathematical Statistics. 1947, 18, 50-60

In the last paragraph of Section 4, there is a possible error in the title of the amendment for multiple comparisons. This error probably occurred while translating the text into English. The Hill amendment is mentioned. Obviously, we are actually talking about the "Holm" amendment. When mentioning this amendment, it is highly desirable to refer to the original source.

We have corrected a typo. It was about the adjusting of p-values by the Holm method.

We have inserted bibliographic references to primary sources:

Holm, S. A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics. 1979, 6, 65–70

It is necessary to describe in more detail the site in the area of Evpatorija. It is necessary to provide information about its ancient history and the history of land use. Although the authors note that data on soils for Area 1 have already been published earlier, it would be appropriate to briefly describe the features of the boundary system and arable soil.

We have updated the description of the study area.

Fragment of corrected text:

«According to the results of interpretation of aerial and satellite images, this region had three types of ancient land management (orthogonal, irregular and the so-called “long fields” [22]. The latter type of land management was characterized by the division of land into plots with a width of 41-42 m using boundary ramparts up to 20 cm high, but which were not used to create transverse boundaries in allotments. It is one of such boundary ramparts and the adjacent old arable land plot that became the objects of soil research. The surviving signs of land surveying make it possible to define the 4th – 2nd centuries BC as a time of agrarian prehistory in land use [23]. According to remote sensing, the land plot near the rampart was used for arable land with a break in 2012-2018. The arable horizon has a dark yellowish brown color (10YR 4/4) is characterized by a medium alkaline reaction of the soil solution (pH is 8.3), a low Corg content of 0.93%, and a high content of mobile phosphorus and exchangeable potassium»

Note to the analysis Table 2. The geochemical analysis would be more complete if the authors noted which elements and oxides remained stable because of plowing compared to the other two compared soils.

Insert after Table 2:

The postagrogenic fallow (to the west of the boundary rampart), in comparison with the soil to the east of the rampart, contains higher concentrations of CaO, Cu and Pb, but lower contents of Na, S and As. The plowing results did not affect the change in the concentration of such oxides and elements as TiO₂, MnO, Fe₂O₃, K₂O, Cr, Ni, Rb, Sr and Ba.

Requests for a technical plan. Figure 1: Satellite imagery must be of higher resolution; Authors must indicate the source where the satellite imagery was taken from. Figure 3: Figure must be submitted in higher quality, resolution is not less than 300 dpi

In Figure 1 we have inserted a higher resolution satellite image. We have written the satellite imagery source in the captions for Figures 1 and 2: «Satellite imagery mosaic source - ESRI World Imagery». We also improved the quality of Figure 3.

Reviewer comment

Authors reply

L2

Consider changing to "plowed land"

We changed the word plough-land to arable land

L10-13.

Very long sentence. Make into two.

We split the sentence:

Soil system responses have been studied, in particular, the colors of soils depending on different types of land use (arable land and residential areas). These responses are caused by construction of an ancient boundary rampart near a multilayer monument of Ancient Time and Middle Ages within the boundaries of the Bosporus Kingdom (Eastern Crimea), as well as in the area of modern and ancient (4-2 c. BC) land use (North-Western Crimea).

L24-25

Citation:

«In the samples characterizing the agrogenic transformation of soils, these differences are more pronounced»

What is the significance of this?  Please state clearly.

This makes it possible to detect traces of ancient boundary ramparts according to remote sensing data, even if the ramparts are partially destroyed by plowing.

L51-61.

N 1-2 sentences please state why this study is unique or novel.  This needs to be clarified.

This is the first experience of such research for the territories of ancient agriculture in the Crimea. Colorimetric measurements can be another useful tool here, along with geochemical data, remote sensing and satellite positioning technologies.

 L72

Write out "30" to thirty as it is the beginning of a sentence.

We have fixed this.

L86

Remove the word «here» in: «The length of each transect here was 550 m».

l

ength of each transect here was 550 m.

We have fixed this.

L86

Be consistent throughout he manuscript and leave a space...5 m.

We have fixed this.

L92

Be consistent and follow previous format used.

We have fixed this:

and 8^th-9^th centuries

L93

Since the artefact is (correct spelling).

We gave an explanation:

«Since the artefacts (dated pottery fragments) are multi-layered…»

L104. on loess-like loam (?)

The term is related to the differences between true loess and loess-like deposits. We cite: «The most comprehensive classification is that according to grain size distribution. On this basis, typical loess is distinguished from loess-like deposits such as sandy loess, loess loam or adobe, clayey loess, etc. These terms bear no genetic connotation» (from: Pécsi M. (1968) Loess. In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg).

Loess-like loams - rocks close to loesses, differ from them by a lower content of a coarse-silty fraction and large fluctuations in the content of other fractions, lower porosity and subsidence, color from yellowish-brown to reddish-brown. Usually contain carbonates.

You can read about the use of the term in the work:

Jefferson, I.F.; Evstatiev, D.; Karastanev, D.; Mavlyanova, N.G.; Smalley, I.J. Engineering geology of loess and loess-like deposits: a commentary on the Russian literature. Engineering Geology. 2003, 68(3-4), 333-351

L111

Should be past tense in: «A thatch layer of 0-4.5 cm thickness is formed in the soil»

We have fixed this.

L150-152

Not needed, too much detail.

We removed this.

L157-168

Too much detail. Some of this can be removed.

This level of detail is essential to ensure reproducible results. This is required by the rules for authors: «They should be described with sufficient detail to allow others to replicate and build on published results»

L170

4. Results and Discussion

More could be added to the discussion on what methods are currently being used and where they may fall short.  Comparing and contrasting other studies could add value here.

We added:

In the future, the results obtained can be obtained using other instruments, including in the field. Along with the use of modern instruments for soil color evaluation (spectro-photometers, spectroradiometers and photocolorimeters) [10, 13], digital devices (cameras) [5, 8] and flatbed scanners are still more accessible to researchers [6, 45, 46]. In this case, a constant artificial light source is used, or the photograph is taken in natural light, but using calibration scales. RGB values that are extracted from a photo can be converted to XYZ (RGB to XYZ) and then to CIE-L*a*b* [47].

Table 1. remove "," and change cm to "(cm), put all units in the table in brackets

We have fixed this.

L216

I.e. visually, the samples from the arable land have a greater scatter of colour coordinates in the CIE 1976 (L*a*b) space than the samples from the steppe.

We have removed "I.e."

L218

«Was» past tense in: «The second feature of the structure of the analysed data is the presence in each of the clouds of points of two components, which are close to each other, but almost do not intersect»

We have fixed this:

<…> analyzed data was the presence <…>

L275

Delete «this» and paste «are» instead «is» in:

«The influence of all this three variables is statistically significant (p<0.05), but not the same»

We have fixed this:

The influence of all three variables are statistically significant (p<0.05), but not the same.

L276

Citation: «but not the same».

 Explain this a bit more. what does this mean in context of the paper.

The strength of the influence of factors is characterized by the value of R2. Based on its value, we can conclude that the influence of the type of land use is many times greater (about 20 times) than the influence of the type of transect. This is consistent with the distance between point clouds that we observe in Figure 3.

L301

Paste «was» instead «is» in:

«When the Hill correction is used, the differences in the a* coordinates for samples collected from the rampart and plot in the steppe are statistically significant with p=0.01»

We have fixed this:

When the Holm correction was used, the…

The name of the method has also been corrected: «Holm» instead of «Hill».

L310

Ploughing up of ancient fallow lands formed on the sites of ancient agriculture leads to a change in the soil colour.

 (Please comment on why this may be so.  Discuss this in the results and discussion section.  If references are not available (I suspect some are from doing search) speculate on why one would see this. Also comment on this in the conclusion.

The change in soil color is associated with the loss of humus during agricultural use. Due to this, lightening occurs.