More than 50 years have passed since the excavation of the Yassıada shipwreck off the coast of Bodrum, Turkey; publication of Yassı Ada (sic) volume I, by George Bass and Frederick van Doornick followed in 1982. Since then, maritime archaeology has made considerable progress. The work under review here presents revised papers from a 2007 symposium held at the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M University. As suggested by the title, the work centres on the Yassıada wreck and similar studies, and fittingly so. The publication of Yassıada provided a serious boost to Byzantine archaeology and Byzantine studies generally, and was foundational to several advances since made in explorations of the Byzantine economy. This is especially true of the study of the amphorae cargo of the small Yassıada vessel, which scholars now accept as indicative of a robust late antique Mediterranean seaborne exchange, although the precise nature of this exchange remains under debate. This vigorous movement of goods, of course, stands in sharp contrast to the formerly rather bleak horizon of the dominant narrative of the late Roman and early medieval worlds.

Maritime studies is divided into four parts. Part I deals with the broader maritime economies, principally derived from material found in the Yassıada shipwreck, and thus mainly pertaining to the late antique eastern Mediterranean. Elizabeth Greene and Mark Lawall contribute work on container standardisation based on Hellenistic samples; unsurprisingly, the results indicate relatively consistent vessel standardisation only in the late Hellenistic period (second century BC). Peter van Alfen notes that the uniform vessel capacities of the LR2 amphorae recovered from Yassıada indicate state control over the initial production, linked, in all likelihood, to the supply of the military on the Danube frontier, in this case by a church-owned ship. Van Alfen's view that vessel standardisation was imposed by the church or state, through their considerable influence and purchasing power, is reasonable but untested. It is surprising that decades after the discovery at Yassıada, and despite its centrality to Byzantine life, we await a full study of the Byzantine church in the economy. Curiously, the close-interval capacities of the Yassıada vessels, van Alfen argues, include forms that varied from one another by only five or six Roman pounds (litra). In 50kg vessels, one wonders what is the point of such a narrow gradation. If the state were responsible, how were such narrow limits maintained, and for what reason? It seems that such claims can only be tested in light of evidence from similarly closed contexts, probably best provided by another shipwreck of the same era.

Part II comprises papers that focus on ships and harbours, beginning with an overview of the Madrague de Giens (France) wreck of the first century BC, a large vessel of 550 tonnes carrying up to 10000 amphorae. The chapter by Eric Rieth details the Port Berteau II wreck, an early medieval coaster, 14.6m long, from the Atlantic coast of France, excavated in 1992–1997. Reith argues Port Berteau II, whose oak timbers and planking have yielded radiocarbon dates c. AD 600, represents an outlier with carvel planking and frame-first construction apparently used by the early medieval period, centuries before carvel construction became common in north-western Europe. Construction technique is also the focus of Sarah Kampbell's work on the seventh-century Pantano Longarini ship, which Kampbell argues was a coastal lighter equipped with a ramp for loading cargo and livestock. Given the vitality of late antique and early medieval Sicily, Kampbell notes that the vessel's large size relative to other ships of the period (it is some 31.5m long and 10.3m maximum beam) represented a significant capital investment, but that its rather crude construction indicates an effort to keep cost under control. It could simply reflect a loss of skill or a decision to employ unskilled labour. In any case, her analysis is intriguing, opening, as it does, broader avenues by which to explore coastal trade. As navigable rivers in Sicily are unlikely to have played a role, Kampbell's theory opens new avenues of research in the central Mediterranean, namely local trade and tramping around the island. We know from the excavations of the late antique palatial complex at Piazza Armerina and the growing body of rural archaeological material from Sicily that the island had no shortage of patrons capable of building and floating such a craft, but, by the seventh century, the church is probably the best candidate, given the extent of its holdings on the island. While informative, the chapter by Pulak, Ingram and Jones on the shipwrecks of the Theodosian Harbour, Yenikapı and Istanbul does not provide much new information. These wrecks, more than 37 of them, offer the promise of revolutionising our knowledge of Byzantine maritime construction and deepening our understanding of trade networks, shipboard life and, if carefully recorded and published, a number of other important questions beyond the late antique and early medieval economy. Ciciliot's chapter on the Genoese panfilii ship types, based primarily on thirteenth-century Genoese notarial documents, is a strong contribution.

Part III includes papers by Jeffrey Royal on the Roman Levanzo I wreck and its cargo of vaulting tubes, with a discussion of their economic significance; Robert Hohlfelder on the harbour at Aperlae in south-eastern Turkey; and Justin Leidwanger's overview of anchorages, wrecks and maritime trade in Cyprus. Vasilios Christides places the eleventh-century Serçe Limanı wreck in historical context and offers a brief look into eastern Mediterranean shipping. More detailed and informative is John Pryor's ‘A medieval Mediterranean maritime revolution, crusading by sea ca. 1096–1204’, in which the author amplifies his earlier work with a number of useful observations on sailing distances, ports of call and networks. Roxani Margariti's discussion of the relevance of Geniza documents in illuminating nautical knowledge is a good introductory work and invitation for closer scrutiny for this still underused body of material. Part IV consists of van Doorninck's concluding chapter, which revises and updates many of the original conclusions drawn in the first publication of the Yassıada shipwreck. Notably, van Doorninck reiterates that the vessel belonged to the church, that it was engaged in supplying military tax-in-kind (annona militaris), that it was based on Samos and that the final voyage of the vessel occurred in AD 629–30. Whatever one's views on these conclusions, it is beyond dispute that the discovery of the Yassıada wreck and the scholarship spawned by its publication have stimulated Byzantine archaeological research and numerous subfields. Sadly, besides the Institute of Nautical Archaeology's exploration of Serçe Limanı, and despite the potential to transform our knowledge of Byzantium (perhaps the most understudied society relative to its size and longevity), maritime archaeology has yet to fulfil the promise and lasting influence achieved by Yassıada, as rightly recognised in this volume.