ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SAMOKOV (Veselin Hadzhiangelov – vhajiangelov@yahoo.com, Anastasia Cholakova) A layer with burned debris, situated above the floor level, was finally explored in the building in Sector 1B. It was related to the destruction of the building in the beginning of the 5th century AD. In Sector 3, the western fortification wall of the 4th century AD was uncovered for 8.50 m in length. The wall was build of stones bonded with mortar and had two faces with an emplectum of smaller stones. It is 1 m wide and is preserved up to 1.20 m in height. A fortification tower, 6.50 m by 6.50 m in size, was documented. Its walls are 1 m wide and are preserved at over 1.50 m in height. A building adjacent to the northern face of the tower was discovered. Its walls are 70 cm wide, built of stones bonded with mud. Debris, roof tiles, burned beams of oak and fir, burned clay plaster, pottery, and bones of sheep, pigs and goats were found inside the building. A wall surrounding a yard was discovered. Remains of a blacksmith forge and pieces of slag, c. 40 kg in weight, were discovered. The building probably was a blacksmith workshop, which dates to the second half of the 5th century AD, judging from a coin of Theodosius II minted in the middle of the 5th century AD and found in its foundations. The fire and the end of the building occupation date to the 6th century AD, judging from the finds: a follis of Justinian I minted in AD 439 – 440, a belt buckle of the Sucidava Type, fragments of amphorae and fibulae.