EXPLORATIONS IN SOZOPOLIS (Tsonya Drazheva, Dimitar Nedev – am_sozopol@abv.bg) The explorations of the southern fortification wall of Sozopolis began and 45 m of the wall were discovered. It was 1.80 m wide, built in opus emplectum and preserved up to 4 m in height. Two rectangular towers were explored. The western tower No. 1 measured 5.80 m by 5.80 m and ashlars of an ancient building and ancient funerary stelae with Greek and Latin inscriptions were reused in its construction. The front side of the eastern tower No. 2 was projected at 7.30 in front of the wall and an architrave and a cornice of an Early Hellenistic building were reused in its construction. The fortification wall was built at the end of the 4th century AD and was repaired during the 5th – 6th centuries AD. A stratum, 1.20 m thick, containing remains from building activities of the 14th – 15th centuries was situated over the fortification wall. The finds from the exploration of the wall included Early Byzantine pottery and coins. Five Christian graves (two of them with deceased children) of the 4th century AD were discovered. One of the children graves was built of stones and covered with roof tiles. The grave goods included a bronze earring and two coins of the 4th century AD. An ellipsoid ritual pit (bothros), 5.20 m by 1.20 m in size and 90 cm in depth, cut into the bedrock, was explored under the level of the graves. It contained sherds of amphorae with stamps of Heraclea Pontica, Thasos and Mende, local greyware, black-gloss pottery, imported red-figure pottery, 15 terracotta tokens (psephoi), a terracotta comic mask and two terracotta figurines. Two pits filled with copper slag, which remained from metallurgical activities carried out through 550 – 525 BC, were discovered close to the ritual pit. An ancient building, a street paved with stone slabs and a peribolos were discovered close to fortification tower No. 1. A pile of sherds of amphorae from Thasos, Chios, Mende and Heraclea Pontica, black-gloss pottery and red-gloss pottery, was explored under the level of the ancient street. A church of the 13th – 14th centuries was documented. Frescoes were preserved in its apse.