The Society is pleased to present this talk at 2.30 PM on Saturday 18th March, 2023 at the Maitlandfield House Hotel, Haddington.
Non-members welcome – a small donation appreciated.
Rob Engl, MA (Hons) FSA, MCIFA
Rob graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1999 and has subsequently
worked in commercial archaeology for 23 years. This has included projects
throughout Britain and Ireland and for the National Forest Service in the United
States. He is an established lithic specialist with a particular interest in the Scottish Mesolithic and the sites of the Forth Littoral. Rob has recently completed the publication of the Mesolithic House site at Dunbar. He is currently involved with the Mesolithic project at Berriedale, Caithness and the multi period landscape project at Ailsa View, South Ayrshire. This latter project has produced four Mesolithic hut structures.
In 2012 excavation works undertaken in advance of quarrying at East Barns,
Dunbar, East Lothian, revealed the substantial remains of a circular house structure, securely dated to the late 9th Millennium. A large, well stratified assemblage of 30,142 stone tools was recovered during the excavation! The East Barns site was occupied during a period of rapid environmental change: a significantly warming climate leading to speedy biota recolonisation of northern Britain. These environmental changes appear in tandem with the emergence of substantial house sites along the Forth Littoral which together with a change in stone tool technology can be seen as part of the adaption of Mesolithic populations to the emergence and exploitation of a broader range of physical environments within South East Scotland.
