Archaeometry of Ancient Mortar-Based Materials in Roman Regio X and Neighboring Territories: A First Review

Abstract

This review synthesizes the corpus of archaeometric and analytical investigations focused on mortar-based materials, including wall paintings, plasters, and concrete, in the Roman Regio X and neighboring territories of northeastern Italy from the mid-1970s to the present. Organized into three principal categories—wall paintings and pigments, structural and foundational mortars, and flooring preparations—the analysis highlights the main methodological advances and progress in petrographic microscopy, mineralogical analysis, and mechanical testing of ancient mortars. Despite extensive case studies, the review identifies a critical need for systematic, statistically robust, and chronologically anchored datasets to fully reconstruct socio-economic and technological landscapes of this provincial region. This work offers a programmatic research agenda aimed at bridging current gaps and fostering integrated understandings of ancient construction technologies in northern Italy. The full forms of the abbreviations used throughout the text to describe the analytical equipment are provided at the end of the document in the “Abbreviations” section.

1. Introduction

The study of ancient mortars has emerged as a vital discipline in archeology, offering critical insights into the technological capabilities of past civilizations. Through mortar analysis, researchers can reconstruct historical building techniques, establish both relative and absolute chronologies of architectural structures, and determine the provenance and trade routes of raw materials [1]. This interdisciplinary approach not only enhances our understanding of construction practices but also sheds light on broader socio-economic frameworks and cultural interactions.

This review aims to present a comprehensive overview of archaeometric studies focused on mortar analysis in northeastern Italy, corresponding approximately to the ancient Roman Regio X—Venetia et Histria and the neighboring territory. In antiquity, this region extended from the modern-day Italian regions of eastern Lombardy to the Venetian Lagoon, comprising the Friuli-Venezia Giulia and most of the Trentino-Alto Adige regions, together with portions of Slovenia and the Istrian Peninsula (Figure 1). Historically, this area has demonstrated a distinctive cultural identity and construction tradition, evident in its masonry, flooring systems, and wall finishes [2,3,4,5,6]. These features also reflect the particular characteristics of mortar-based materials used for construction of decorative purposes, thus offering an overview of the studies conducted on different mortar typologies in what is one of the main “peripheral realities” within the Roman Empire.

Archaeometry of mortar-based materials in northeastern Italy began in the mid-1970s. One of the first studies conducted was the analytical piece of work by L. Kociszewski in 1977, which focused on some Roman and medieval plaster samples (to which were also added fragments of mosaic preparations) found during the excavations on Torcello (the northern lagoon of Venice), conducted by Polish researchers from the University of Warsaw [7]. Eight mortar samples, dated to the Roman period and others dated from the Early Medieval period, were analyzed using Transmitted Light Optical Microscopy (TL-OM) on thin sections and Chemical Dissolution (CD).

Shortly afterward, L. Lazzarini published the results on the analyses on some fragments of Roman plaster found in excavations at the Giardini Eremitani in Padua [8], where pigments and preparatory mortar samples (tectorium) were analyzed using TL-OM on thin sections and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD).

Only ten years later, new archaeometric studies were published, such as those by B. D’Ambrosio and S. Sfrecola on the plasters recovered from the excavations at Milan’s Santa Maria alla Porta, where through stereomicroscope in reflected light numerous wall paintings and stucco samples were analyzed [9,10]. Another study was published by G. Alessandrini and collaborators on the wall painting fragments from the excavations of the imperial villa at Sirmione on Lake Garda [11], analyzed using TL-OM on thin sections.

In can be noted that, between the 1970s and 1990s, research has mainly focused on wall painting fragments, which have been the subject of significantly more analytical and archaeometric studies than other types of mortars, such as structural ones. This is due to both the historical, artistic, and cultural value of Roman painting and the continued interest of the scholarly community.

In the following decades, there has been a noticeable increase in publications specifically focused on mortar-based materials. The available bibliography is mainly composed of a series of case studies, primarily published as appendix in the framework of larger archeological projects, and more rarely as independent research studies. These studies have seldom been incorporated into broader syntheses. However, since the 1990s, research on mortars, plasters, and concretes in the region has started to expand, with growing attention also being paid to mortar-based materials different from wall paintings.

This review is therefore organized into three main categories of mortar-based materials found in this region as follows: (1) wall paintings and pigments, which have the longest research tradition; (2) structural and foundational mortars, which have only recently become a focus of investigation; and (3) floor preparation layers, which remain underrepresented in the literature and are often only addressed within the framework of conservation efforts related to mosaics and site restoration.

2. Archaeometry of Wall Paintings and Pigments

Since the early 1990s, analytical research on Roman wall plasters in northern Italy has been primarily driven by R. Bugini and L. Folli, starting with their pioneering studies on the wall paintings from the western hall of the Republican sanctuary of Brescia/Brixia [12,13]. In the following decades, the Lombardy region (in the western portion related to the ancient Regio IX—Gallia Transpadana) became the primary focus of investigations on Roman wall paintings. Their research gradually expanded to include a wide range of sites across the region, including Cremona, Milan/Mediolanum, Calvatone/Bedriacum, Civitate Camuno, and Desenzano del Garda [14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. The main adopted techniques adopted include TL-OM on thin sections, XRD and, more recently, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy-Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) for pigments. To date, this research encompasses more than 150 samples from contexts of varying chronology. To this body of work, two additional studies can be added, detailed as follows: one concerning further analyses of wall paintings from the western hall of the sanctuary in Brescia [25], and the other on new analyses on the fragments from the imperial villa (so-called Grotte di Catullo) in Sirmione on Lake Garda [26].

The increase in the study of wall paintings during the 1990s, though often fragmentary and found in fill layers during archeological excavations, closely mirrors the broader trajectory of Roman wall painting research in northern Italy, which, due to the highly fragmentary nature of the material, has only recently emerged as a fully developed field of study [27,28].

Since the early 2000s, a number of archaeometric studies began to emerge in other areas of northern Italy, particularly in the eastern regions.

In the modern-day Veneto region, a significant leap forward was made thanks to numerous contributions by G.A. Mazzocchin and collaborators from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, published over the past two decades. The majority of case studies come from the main Roman urban sites in Veneto, such as Vicenza, Verona, Concordia Sagittaria, Montegrotto Terme, Padova, together with minor sites (Rocca di Manerba) [29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36]. In this case, the focus has been on the characteristics of the pigments rather than the preparatory mortars, which have been analyzed primarily using spectroscopic techniques, such as FT-IR and Raman Spectroscopy (Raman), and to a lesser extent, using TL-OM, SEM-EDS, or XRD.

This main group can also include studies conducted at other sites, including the wall paintings from the cryptoporticus of the Capitolium in Verona [37] (pp. 641–642), with a predominantly petrographic approach using OM-TL, and more recently, from Negrar in Valpolicella near Verona [38], adopting multi-analytical methods for the study of both mortars and pigments, via OM-TL, XRD, SEM-EDS, and Raman.

There have been fewer in-depth studies on the analytical characteristics of wall paintings in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Worth mentioning are two short notes from the early 1990s published in the exhibition catalog Roman Aquileia. Public and Private Life (1991), which reported on petrographic and mineralogical analyses of a small number of wallpainting fragments recovered from Roman houses beneath the medieval baptistery in Aquileia [39,40], and a study of pigments from the wall paintings found in a Roman Villa near Pordenone and Trieste [30]. In recent years, a renewed wave of studies focused primarily on the center of Aquileia has, for the first time, analyzed a significant corpus of wall painting fragments attributed to different archeological periods, ranging from the Late Republican era to the Early Imperial age. By concentrating on the preparatory characteristics of the mortars, as well as pigments, these multi-analytical studies have highlighted important evolutions in wall painting preparation techniques. Such findings can provide valuable clues for potential chronological framing in the absence of other stratigraphic or stylistic data, relying primarily on OM-TL analyses of the mortars and the surface layers of the intonachino [41,42,43,44].

South of Regio X, in the Emilia Romagna region (Regio VII—Aemilia), research has largely been coordinated by P. Baraldi and collaborators, whose work has seen considerable expansion in the past decade. The sites investigated include Bresciello/Brixellum, Cattolica near Rimini, Claterna near Bologna, Castelfranco Emilia near Modena, Faenza/Faventia, Forlì, Modena/Mutina, Montegibbio near Modena, Parma, Piacenza/Placentia, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia, and Rimini/Ariminum [45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52]. A particular case is [53], where the focus shifts to the pigments used for making the preparatory drawing for mosaics. In all the latter cases, the main focus has been on the characteristics of the pigments rather than the preparatory mortars, which have been analyzed coupling TL-OM, SEM–EDS, Raman, and FT–IR, XRD, and Colorimetry. Other techniques such as XRPD, Thermogravimetry and Differential Thermal Analysis (TGA/DTA), and X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) were used in other studies.

Beyond Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Emilia, research in the Trentino-Alto Adige region has been more limited, with studies by [54] primarily focused on pigment characterization, and [55,56], who also included plaster layers from Isera.

In Slovenia, plaster fragments from the Roman site of Emona (modern Ljubljana) [57], Celje [58], and villae rusticae near Mošnje and Školarice [59,60,61] have also been analyzed using TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS, FT-IR together with Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP).

In summary, older studies tend to focus primarily—or even exclusively—on the painted surfaces, while the petrographic and compositional features of the preparatory layers (tectorium) have only come under closer scrutiny in more recent years. The notable exception to this is the work of R. Bugini, L. Folli, and colleagues, who, since the earliest studies of the 1990s, emphasized the technical aspects of the mortars by investigating the preparatory mortar layers. In recent years, the growing interest in preparatory mortars of ancient Roman wall paintings of the considered territory is also reflected in various contributions addressing the nature and provenance of raw materials, particularly the sands used in preparatory mortars of wall paintings [62], even introducing statistical multivariate methods to manage data from Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) analyses [63], the geological origin and sources of spathic calcite clasts used in intonachino [64,65,66], the characteristics of monocrystalline aggregates [67], and the role of clay in wall painting preparations [68,69,70].

3. Archaeometry of Structural Mortars and Concretes

Interest in the study of structural mortars, compared to that devoted to wall paintings, has been largely neglected until relatively recent years, with most significant contributions emerging only after the 2000s. One of the earliest examples—almost pioneering in nature—is the work of O.-H. Lamprecht, who, in 1984, analyzed a concrete sample from an unspecified structure in the imperial villa at Sirmione [71] (pp. 64–65) using Mechanical Compression Tests (MCT).

From the 1990s to the present, research on bedding and structural mortars has remained extremely limited. Analytical data, often presented as appendices in broader studies on building materials and construction techniques, are generally fragmented and based on isolated case studies, with restricted sampling from individual ancient monuments. Among these are the archaeometric investigations of bedding mortars via XRD in the brick foundations of the Republican walls of Modena [72]. Other examples of analyses on bedding mortars, primarily investigated via TL-OM on thin section and/or XRD, investigated the wall joints of the cryptoporticus of the Capitolium in Verona [37], (pp. 640–641) and the foundational concrete and opus caemeticium of the amphitheaters of Como [73,74] and Padova [75,76]. Wall mortars from various structures were analyzed with the same approach in urban and suburban sites and villas, as those in Desenzano [77], Ravenna [78], Milan [79], Egna-Kahn near Bozen [80], and the Doss Penede sites north of Lake Garda [81]. A vault in opus caementicium from the Republican sanctuary in Brescia was also analyzed [12].

Different from wall and structural mortars, studies of linings, and mortars for hydraulic infrastructures (such as aqueducts and cisterns) are even more limited; [82] studied the linings of Roman aqueducts near Brescia.

A notable leap in this field has occurred since the second decade of the 2000s, with a series of research initiatives led by the University of Padova. In particular, compositional and technological characterizations of mortar-based materials from the theater and amphitheater of ancient Patavium (Padova) have been carried out using advanced archaeometric methods, including TL-OM on thin sections, XRD on bulk mortars and separated binders, SEM-EDS, combined with MCT [83,84,85]. For the first time in the considered region, ¹⁴C Radiocarbon Dating and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) methods were even applied for the dating of mortar samples from Roman and Late Antique buildings of Patavium [84,86]. Analytical investigations made it possible to identify a distinctive type of local volcanic pozzolan, likely sourced from the Euganean Hills volcanic district, used to enhance the mechanical properties of the structural mortars in the buildings under study.

Ongoing investigations, developed with the same approach, have extended to Roman structures and villas from Montegrotto (ancient Fons Aponi) and Mutteron dei Frati in Bibione near Venice (see reports on these sites in [87]). Of particular significance is the discovery of Phlegraean volcanic pozzolans in an underwater Roman construction in the Venice Lagoon, representing the first such evidence for this region of such long trade of imported materials for mortar production ([88], revising preliminary analyses in [89]).

In recent years, special attention has also been directed to Aquileia, a key urban center in Roman northern Italy that had previously been almost entirely overlooked in studies of this kind. The only earlier data came from a few unpublished analyses of mortar samples taken from structures near the river port, conducted by R. Bugini and L. Folli and briefly mentioned in [3] (pp. 36–38) and notes 60,63. More recently, extensive structural analyses have been undertaken on a significant dataset of mortars from Aquileia (over 300 samples), primarily through research initiatives promoted by the University of Padova. These studies have targeted various contexts: structural mortars of the High Imperial theater [90], the amphitheater [91], the Late Antique baths [92,93], and further case studies such as the domus of Tito Macro [94], the Republican Urban walls [94,95,96], the episcopal complex, and riverbank constructions, detailed in a recent monograph [95] and in a report in [87], including reviews focusing on the hydraulic properties of these mortars [96]. Analytical techniques used in this research involve OM-TL on thin sections, XRD on bulk mortars and separated binders, SEM-EDS, and, in certain cases, Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (SS-NMR). Statistical multivariate methods, such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA), were employed to identify groups of mortars useful for reconstructing building phases, while geochemical techniques like XRF and Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) were used to trace the provenance of imported volcanic pozzolans.

Collectively, this body of research has significantly advanced our understanding of the technological and production-specific features of northern Italian craftsmanship. For the first time, these studies have documented the procurement and the combined use of local and imported volcanic pozzolans in construction, a practice previously undocumented for these geographic and cultural contexts.

Beyond Italy, research has also intensified in recent years. In Slovenia and Croatia, systematic studies have been undertaken, including work on binder mixtures from a rustic villa near Mošnje [59] and Školarice [97], analyzed with multi-analytical procedures including TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS, FT-IR, TGA/DTA.

4. Archaeometry of Pavements and Floor Preparations

To conclude, some data should also be mentioned regarding the mortars and concrete used in floor preparation screeds, which have been mostly analyzed within the context of diagnostics aimed at guiding conservation and restoration interventions on ancient mosaics and sectilia. A few examples can be found in the literature (e.g., [98,99,100,101]). Only a few samples were analyzed using TL-OM, mainly for diagnostic purposes aimed at guiding restoration interventions.

On the other hand, few studies have focused specifically on the analysis of floor preparation layers with the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of ancient construction techniques in this sector of construction. Relevant case studies include the analyses of mosaics from Faenza [102], Montegrotto near Padova [103], Montegibbio near Modena [47,50], and Mosnje and Školarice in Slovenia [59,60,97]. As observed for wall plasters, an important core of work has been carried out through the research of R. Bugini and L. Folli, primarily focused on sites in Lombardy, including Brescia [104], Cremona [105], Desenzano del Garda [77], Milan [79,106]. A synthesis of the characteristics of preparatory layers of Roman mosaics in Lombardy is offered in [107,108]. A single study was dedicated to mosaic preparations in Aquileia [109].

The analyses by the authors primarily relied on TL-OM of thin sections, aiming to identify and distinguish the number and composition of the preparatory layers of the floors, mainly mosaics, that were studied. In more comprehensive works, efforts have been made to compare analytical data with references in Latin technical literature—particularly the writings of Vitruvius and Pliny—on floor making techniques [106,108,109]. In some cases, the analyses have enabled scholars to reconstruct aspects of workforce organization on construction sites and to delineate construction phases based on compositional similarities in the materials used for floor bedding layers ([102], especially p. 311; [103] (pp. 430–432)).

More recently, comprehensive diachronic studies, promoted by the University of Padova on the already mentioned site of Aquileia, have highlighted important shifts in the preparatory traditions of ancient pavements, in particular mosaics, over time. As well as wall paintings, these studies have proven valuable in offering chronological insights into ancient floor constructions offering tools for dating the pavements based on the making technique [91,110,111].

However, the overview presented here shows that in Regio X and northern Italy, the archaeometric study and characterization of mortar-based materials used in floor preparation remains limited, with most attention directed toward mosaics. For other types of pavements, archaeometric research is still significantly underdeveloped.

5. Conclusive Remarks

From the perspective of analytical techniques and the depth of investigation, it is evident that, particularly in past decades, the study of wallpaintings, and especially of pigments, received the most attention. This is reflected not only in the higher number of case studies examined, but also in the array of techniques employed, which frequently included spectroscopic and chemical instrumentation aimed at material analysis. In contrast, the study of samples from structural, hydraulic, or flooring preparation mortars saw more limited sampling and a characterization process primarily based on petrographic techniques (TL-OM), sometimes supported by mineralogical analyses such as XRD. Only in more recent years, especially the most recent, a significant deepening in the study of structural mortars has been observed (

Table 1. Summary table of the cases mentioned in the text.

Ancient Roman Region	Modern Region/City	References	Analytical Techniques
Wall paintings
Regio IX (Gallia Transpadana) + Regio X (Brescia, Sirmione)	Lombardy (Brescia/Manerba del Garda, Desenzano, Calvatone, Civitate Camuno, Cremona, Calvatone, Milan, Sirmione)	[10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,36,64,65,66,67,68,69,70]	Primarily TL-OM, XRD + SEM-EDS, FT-IR, Raman
Regio X (Venetia et Histria)	Veneto (Verona/Negrar, Padua, Concordia Sagittaria, Vicenza, Montegrotto Terme)	[8,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,37,38,62,63]	FT-IR, Raman, SEM-EDS + TL-OM, XRD, DRIFTS
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Aquileia, Pordenone, Trieste)	[30,39,40,41,42,43,44]	TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS, Raman
	Trentino-Alto Adige (Trento, Isera)	[54,55,56]	Raman, FT-IR, XRF (Pigments), TL-OM, SEM-EDS (mortars)
	Slovenia (Ljubljana, Celje (Noricum), Školarice, Mošnje)	[57,58,59,60,61,97]	TL-OM, FT–IR, MIP + XRD, SEM-EDS, ICP-OES
Regio VII (Aemilia)	Emilia-Romagna (Bresciello, Modena, Montegibbio, Parma, Castelfranco Emilia, Claterna, Ravenna, Faenza, Forlì, Reggio Emilia, Piacenza, Rimini, Cattolica)	[45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52]	TL-OM, SEM–EDS, Raman, FT–IR, colorimetry + XRF, XRPD, TGA/DTA
Structural Mortars
Regio IX (Gallia Transpadana) + Regio X (Brescia, Sirmione)	Lombardy (Como, Desenzano, Sirmione, Milan, Brescia)	[9,12,71,73,74,77,79,82]	TL-OM, XRD + MT
Regio X (Venetia et Histria)	Veneto (Padua, Montegrotto, Bibione, Torcello, Verona, Venice Lagoon)	[7,37,75,76,83,84,85,86,87,88,89]	TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS, MCT, 14C, OSL
	Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Aquileia)	[3,87,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,112,113,114]	TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS, SS-NMR, XRF, LA-ICP-MS
	Trentino-Alto Adige (Egna, Doss Penede)	[80,81]	TL-OM, XRD, GR
	Slovenia (Mošnje, Školarice)	[59,97]	TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS_FT-IR, CD, TGA/DTA
Regio VII (Aemilia)	Emilia-Romagna (Modena, Ravenna)	[72,78]	XRD, XRF
Floor Preparation
Regio IX (Gallia Transpadana)	Lombardy (Brescia, Cremona, Milan)	[77,79,104,105,106,107,108]	TL-OM, XRD
Regio X (Venetia et Histria)	Veneto (Montegrotto)	[103]	TL-OM
Regio VII (Aemilia)	Emilia-Romagna (Montegibbio, Faenza, Rimini, Bologna, Ravenna)	[47,50,98,100,101,102]	TL-OM, XRD,
Regio X (Venetia et Histria)	Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Aquileia)	[91,109,110,111]	TL-OM, XRD, SEM-EDS
	Slovenia (Mošnje, Školarice)	[59,60,97]	TL-OM, SEM-EDX, FT-IR, CD, TGA-DTA.

). This shift has involved the adoption of chemical, microchemical, and high-resolution geochemical techniques aimed at a more precise understanding of production technology and the provenance of raw materials. There has also been growing interest in analytical methods for material dating.

Under a diachronic perspective, the state-of-the-art overview presented here demonstrates how interest in the mortar-based materials used in antiquity within Regio X and the surrounding territories has grown significantly only over the past two decades, in parallel with the development of new and increasingly meticulous investigative protocols. Research directions are diverse and may take a technical-typological approach (examining characteristics of pozzolanic mortars, plasters, and pigments, as well as types of raw materials employed), a contextual-functional approach (using mortar analysis to distinguish construction phases), or a geographical-territorial focus (analyzing local technical traditions or raw material procurement zones). While early investigations were often relegated to appendices of archeological reports tied to systematic excavations, more recent studies have gained autonomy as independent scientific works. These are frequently multi-analytical in nature and often include the analysis of significant datasets, offering a more coherent and comprehensive picture of ancient technologies, construction traditions, and the provenance of raw materials. However, few systematic studies have been carried out to investigate the distribution, chronology, and functional characteristics of a large statistical sample of mortar-based materials within the clearly defined spatial context of a single ancient urban center [95]. This approach allows for a meaningful contextualization of findings within the broader social, economic, and artisanal landscape. Recent analytical syntheses, such as those by R. Bugini with L. Folli and collaborators, or by P. Baraldi and collaborators, based primarily on wall painting samples from sites in Lombardy and Emilia, constitute significant contributions in this direction (e.g., [20,26,49]). Along the same lines are several diachronic studies focusing on mosaics from the Lombardy area, previously mentioned [105,107,108].

However, these latter studies, although certainly commendable for providing a fundamental summary of the current state of research on the specific topics, were developed retrospectively, compiling data from analyses conducted over many years rather than from a programmatic research plan. As a result, sometimes key aspects are missing, like the diachronic dimension, that in many cases remains limited; for example, many of the samples come from undated contexts or lack representation from the middle to late Imperial period. Thus, for Northern Italy, there is a clear need for comprehensive syntheses and programmatic projects that integrate the scattered data from years of research with a specific task that will enable for broader historical and socio-economic interpretations. Only through the intensive, multifaceted investigation of a single or multiple ancient center can we hope to achieve a statistically robust and diachronically complete understanding of mortar-based production techniques and tradition within a specific region. This is the scope driven by the present study, which aims to establish a reliable foundation for reconstructing the technological evolution of mortar-based materials in key urban sites of Roman Regio X and neighboring territories.

In light of these considerations, it is to be hoped that future research will increasingly adopt interdisciplinary and systematic approaches, capable of integrating high-resolution archaeometric analyses with a solid historical, functional, and territorial understanding of archeological contexts. Only through targeted investigations, based on statistically significant datasets and clearly defined chronological frameworks, can the current fragmentation of data be overcome, enabling a more comprehensive reconstruction of the technological evolution of mortars in relation to the socio-economic and cultural dynamics of ancient urban centers. This perspective opens a promising and innovative research path, not only for the specific geographical and chronological context considered, but more broadly within the overall landscape of studies on ancient construction materials. Such a methodological direction has the potential to provide more robust and comparable interpretive tools, significantly advancing the discipline on a global scale.