General phenomena such as the organisation of the Byzantine navy and its
operations or lighthouses are discussed in this volume as well as new
geoarchaeological research methodologies in harbour archaeology. Most
contributions in the present volume examine case studies for the most
important maritime core region of the Byzantine Empire, the Aegean. This
sea connected the remaining provinces of the empire in Southeastern
Europe and Asia Minor after the loss of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and
North Africa to the Arabs in the 7th century A.D. In addition to
technical and geographical aspect, the studies in this volume make clear
that we need to explore more and more the social embedding of the
seasides of Byzantium to understand their dynamics in all their
complexity.