EXPLORATIONS NEAR SAMOKOV (Veselin Hadzhiangelov – vhajiangelov@yahoo.com) The church in Sector 2 is a single-nave basilica. There is an additionally built chapel adjoined to its southern wall. The basilica has a synthrone with two steps and an entrance and a narthex from the south. The church dates to the middle of the 5th – end of the 6th centuries AD. Two burials (Nos. 6 and 7) of children were discovered in the chapel. The graves are situated under the floor plaster of mortar and date before the construction of the chapel. A burial of a woman (No. 4) was explored to the east of the apse. The explorations of Church No. 1 continued in Sector 1. It is a basilica, 8.60 m by 19.50 m in size. The walls are built of boulders and uneven stones bonded with mud. The rooms from the earlier period, dated by coins to the end of the 4th – 5th centuries AD, provide some evidence for the existence of farming buildings. The finds include iron slag, mill bars, forge hearth, loom weights and iron tools. After the rooms were dismantled, the church was built, probably in the 6th century AD. A hoard was found at the foundations of the church. It contains a bronze buckle of the Sucidava Type, five folles and one hemifollis minted by Justinian I. Two of the coins were minted in AD 538/539 and AD 542/543. The hoard was buried during events related to the destruction of the settlement in ca. AD 550 – 575. The outer fortification wall was discovered in Sector 1V. The wall is built of boulders and uneven stones bonded with mortar. It is 80 – 90 cm thick and has outer and inner buttresses and pilasters. The excavated segment of the wall is 28 m long. There is an eastern gate flanked by two bastions in the middle of the discovered segment. A building, measuring 8.50 m by 15 m, was discovered close to the gate. The finds include loom weighs, iron slag, forging pliers, iron tools and pottery. The latest coin from the building was minted by Theodosius II.