ABSTRACT
Pryor himself correctly observes that the process of evolution was not linear, since there are wrecks from the seventh and tenth centuries that display little or no evidence of mortise-and-tenon plank joining, and which were skeleton built. The case study examined in the present paper, falls into this category Pryor sums up his observation that enough has already been learned from nautical archaeology to confirm that over the centuries methodological approaches to the construction of ship hulls changed entirely. The Codex Theodosianus, subsequently incorporated into the Justinianic Code, sets out the legal issues concerning the navicularii and their financial problems and provides an economic context for the changes in shipbuilding that can be observed from the archaeological evidence. However, the archaeological evidence provides another dimension, which is missing in the documents, to the implications of the geopolitical and economic changes in the Mediterranean that took place in the early Byzantine era.
