EXPLORATIONS NEAR SOZOPOLIS (Metodi Daskalov – m.m.daskalov@mail.bg, Katya Trendafilova) The earlier church, measuring 13 m by 10.50 m, is a three-apse cross-dome building with free-standing columns. The walls are built of ashlars and uneven stones bonded with mortar, with bricks and tiles used to level the courses. Spolia, including four Hellenistic funerary stelae with inscriptions, were used in constructing the jambs of the doors and the columns. The roof was covered with tegulae and imbrices. The nave has an entrance from the north. There is a tripartite entrance from the narthex to the nave. The central part of the nave was covered with a dome. Two entrances lead from the central part of the altar to the Prothesis and the Diaconicon. The walls were plastered with mortar. Fragments of wall paintings, in red-brown, blue-green and black color, were found in the altar. The dome and vaults were covered with pink plaster. The church had glass windows. Graves Nos. 1 and 4 were discovered in front of the nave. The deceased were men. A burial of a child, less than one year old, was explored in the narthex. According to the architectural type, the amphora incorporated into the dome and an anonymous follis of class A1, minted in AD 970 – 976 during the reign of Emperor John I Tzimiskes, the church dates to the 10th century AD. The later church is adjacent to the southern wall of the cross-dome church. It is a single nave, measuring 11 m by 5 m, with a barrel-vault and two entrances from the south and from the west. Fragments of a white-clay glazed vessel and a white-clay glazed decorative plate for a frieze of the 10th century AD, which were found under the floor, date the church. Graves Nos. 2, 3, and 5, built under the floor and with niches (apses) from the west, were explored. The deceased were adults, probably men. Both churches functioned during the 10th – 12th centuries, according to the finds of fragmentary sgraffito pottery.