Archaeology book ‘Spul’ voted ‘Best Book Design from all over the World’
11 March 2019
Spul (Stuff), a catalogue containing archaeological artifacts unearthed during the excavation work for the Noord/Zuidlijn (North-South metro line) in Amsterdam, has been voted the ‘Best Book Design from all over the World’. An international jury awarded it the Goldene Letter, a design prize of the Stiftung Buchkunst in Leipzig, which has organised the prize since 1963. City archaeologist Jerzy Gawronski documented the excavations and also wrote the introduction to the award-winning book.
Spul was designed by Willem van Zoetendaal with images from Harold Stark. It shows a selection of 13,000 objects that were excavated during the construction of the metro line in Amsterdam. A selection of the objects are on display next to the escalator at the Rokin metro stop.
The book, which has more than 600 pages, show 13,000 archaeological finds arranged according to subject, from arrowheads to ointment jars and lice combs. The jury praised it as a ‘unique treasure trove’ which ‘shows a fascinating hotchpotch of items’.
In total, 700,000 objects were excavated, varying from old-fashioned mobile telephones to spearheads from prehistoric times.
