After having occupied himself for a longer period with the Minoan/Mycenaean cultural complex, Wout Arentzen became convinced that quite often the archaeologist and his time are as important for the interpretation of a culture as the archaeological finds themselves. To get a better understanding of this side of the archaeological process he started to study the history of archaeology. It soon became clear that the history of Bronze Age archaeology in the Aegean is directly connected to the history of prehistoric archaeology in Northern Europe. As a consequence Wouts interests have moved from the Aegean to Northern Europe in the last twenty years.Only limited work has been done on the history of archaeology in the Netherlands. Being a Dutchman, it was only natural that this became the main focus of his work.