E1

Excavation in 1976 recorded Mesolithic flints, 12th century cobbling and Medieval pottery. A Mesolithic flint working floor was semi-circular in plan measuring circa 0.8m by 0.9m with debitage. A total of 297 flints were found in the excavation, including cores, flakes, bladelets, microburins, microliths, scrapers, burins and awls. Although flints have since been commonly found on sites in Aberdeen city centre, this was the first discovery of a location where they had actually been made into implements.

From a later date, the earliest signs of activity on this site were a patch of cobbles and some burnt material dating from the late 12th or early 13th century, succeeded by some slightly later post-holes. These features were overlain by garden soil which had accumulated between the 14th and 18th centuries.

Later features included an 18th-century drain, but 19th-century cellarage had destroyed many deposits. It was concluded that this area lay within the confines of the Carmelite Friary until the Reformation, and had little development through much of the medieval period.