It is amazing with the nonstop warfare and constantly changing boundaries across all the centuries that anybody quarried stone, sculpted it, transported it and built anything. It seems like the destroyers must have outnumbered the builders.
I marvel that, before commercial paper, plans could be drawn by draftsmen, communicated to far-away quarrymen, the stones provided to sculptors, the building ornaments and decorations created, and sent by ship to their destination. Letters of credit must have been used somehow to pay the distant workers.
The history of this part of the world is so complex and so confusing, especially when you bore down to small regional and local areas in the podcasts referenced on the “Byzantine Empire” link you provided.
The specs and drafting could have weighed 10+ tons itself.
The destroyers did outnumber the builders after Mohammed got going around 600 AD. It was not long after this shipwreck.
Mediterranean commerce virtually stopped because the Med was infested with Muslim pirates.
Historian John Romers series “Byzantium “ provides a fascinating look at this empire. You can find it on You Tube.