ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF DZHANKA (Stefanka Ivanova – ivanova.stefanka@gmail.com) During field surveys carried out in 2007, sherds from the Chalcolithic period (4900/4850 – 4100/3800 BC) and several flint artifacts were found on a slope under a small rock platform. In 2008, an area (1.50 sq. m and 80 cm in depth) adjoining the rock was explored. The layers were formed from land-slides, probably from the plateau situated above the rock, which occurred in different periods. The layers contain a small number of sherds from different periods: the Early Iron Age (11th – 6th centuries BC) and the antiquity. The aim of the explorations was to collect samples from the rock and to analyze its composition. The reason is the hypothesis that the rock platform was related to a stage of extraction of raw material. There is a vein of jasper and a vein of quartzite within the rock.