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Land around the Rivers Don and Dee has seen human activity since at least 6000BC. The rivers offered access inland, sources of food and water and stable ground in an area of lower lying coast. Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age finds indicate on-going settlement in the area.
The Roman settlement of Devanna may have been at a site near the present day City and Aberdeen could be the “Apardion” mentioned in the Heimskringla Saga.
Aberdeen as we know it today began with two main areas of settlement; Old Aberdeen and what became known as New Aberdeen (to the south). They developed on a series of sand and gravel mounds aligned north to south, between the Rivers Don and Dee.
Aberdeen was ideally positioned for trade with Scandinavian and the East coast of Scotland during the medieval period. Fertile agricultural land provided wealth for land owners and the discovery of granite, its export and use in building Aberdeen during the C18th and C19th gave rise to the city’s well known nickname “the Granite City”.
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