ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF SVALENIK (Deyan Dragoev – dragoev78@yahoo.com) The fortification is situated on a rocky cape with steep slopes. It was a burgus built in c. AD 350 – 375. Sondage I, 10 m by 3 m in size, was carried out in the eastern part of the fortification. Sector of the eastern fortification wall, 1 m thick, built of stones bonded with mortar in opus incertum, was explored. The wall was preserved up to 3 – 4 courses in height. A layer of stones and mortar, which leveled the ground and served as a floor of the northern room of a building from the first construction period of the fortress, was discovered. Its southern room and the inner wall that divided the building were explored in 2007. A hoard of 51 Late Roman bronze coins of small denomination, placed in a small ceramic cup, was discovered close to the eastern fortification wall. The latest coins in the hoard were minted by Valens. During the second construction period, new buildings appeared inside the fortification. Their foundations were built in rubble masonry and the walls were constructed of mud bricks. Remains of two buildings of the second construction period were discovered in the sondage. Terminus post quem for one of the buildings was a bronze coin of Honorius, discovered within the bonding medium of the wall. The other building was destroyed by a fire. The building and probably the fortification were demolished at the end of the 6th – beginning of the 7th century AD, judging from the burned objects found in the layer with debris: a belt buckle of the Sucidava Type and an iron crossbow fibula.