ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BANSKO (Vladimir Baryakov – vlbaryakov@mail.bg) In 2003, an Early Christian basilica and 28 graves in the adjacent necropolis were explored. In 2007 the explorations were resumed. During the present archaeological season the excavations continued and 560 sq. m were explored. Rooms with walls of stones bonded with mortar were discovered. Later, the rooms were rebuilt with a bonding medium of mud, while cut stones, bricks and tegulae from the earlier buildings were reused. The reconstruction occurred after the earlier buildings were burned, while the layer with traces of the fire was 40 – 50 cm thick. Piles of roof-tiles and building ceramics were discovered. Some rooms had pavements of square bricks. The fortification wall on the southern slope was 80 cm wide. A fortress wall, constructed of cut stones bonded with mortar and 1.50 m wide, was discovered. Finds from the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age (late 2nd – early 1st millennia BC) to the Early Middle Age, including pottery, spearheads, iron tools, glass fragments and bonze jewelry, were found. Three graves in the Early Christian necropolis at the basilica were discovered and their total number reached 33. Two bracelets and two finger-rings were found in grave No. 5. The finds from the excavations include 203 coins from the 3rd to the 14th century, plus some later Ottoman coins, pottery from the Thracian period to the Middle Ages, small knives, arrowheads, spearheads, a small combat axe, a small bell, a hoe, bronze jewelry (fibulae, earrings, finger-rings, bracelets, buttons, belt buckles and appliqués), fragments of a marble vessel, a millstone, fragmentary marble votive reliefs of the Thracian Horseman, loom weights and spindle whorls.