Very recently, the book ‘Antwerpen. Een archeologische kijk op het ontstaan van de stad‘ by Antwerp city archeologist Tim Bellens came out. The book has an English translation and an e-book version. 

Its English title is ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City‘.

Many books describe Antwerp from the Renaissance onwards. But books treating its very origins of the Bronze Age, the Roman period, the Carolingian times and medieval era are scarce. 

The book is a grown-ups’ book. Yes there are many illustration, but it’s a book. With heaps of text and factual information. 

Digestible 

As the time I’m writing this blog post, I only read a few bits and pieces. I already learned Antwerp’s early medieval city centre with castle was not located where today’s heart of Antwerp lies. 

Basically I feel ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ is an archeological report on Antwerp written by an archeologist for scientific purposes but made digestible by the author himself.

So it’s not some historian retelling and mixing pre-existing knowledge, it’s more original than that.

‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ is perhaps not a book you will devour from A to Z, but you will pick it up from time to time and read a chapter. 

‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’
192 pages.
Pandora Publishers.
Its English version’s price is set at 23,95 euros. At the time I’m writing this, the book hasn’t actually come out in English yet.