ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR BYALA (Valeri Yotov – valeri.yotov@gmail.com, Alexander Minchev) A building of the 6th – beginning of the 7th centuries AD was explored. It was a house and ergasterion and had two rooms adjoining the fortification wall. Judging from the layer with remains from fire and the debris of the building (roof-tiles and sun-dried bricks), it could be supposed that it was with a single floor and was reconstructed several times. The finds in the building included a gold solidus of Justinian I, a gold solidus of Maurice, over 250 bronze coins from the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 7th centuries AD, a pair of bronze scales, three lead exagia, a stamp for producing appliqués, sherds, including from amphorae mostly of the 6th century AD (one Cartage LRA 4, Gaza/Ashkelon Type, and several В-Іd Type), small lids for amphorae and terracotta lamps. The building was burned during the invasion of Avars and Slavs in AD 614. A cross-like baptistery was explored in the eastern room of the building, located to the north of the basilica, and another earlier baptistery was discovered below it. The later baptistery belonged to Type 21 (a cross inside another cross), while the earlier one belonged to the Type a circle inside a rectangle. The earlier baptistery was constructed in the middle of the 5th century AD and the later one in the first half of the 6th century AD. A building of the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC was explored, it was probably a Thracian temple. Over a dozen of square and circular escharai were discovered in the building, some of them with decoration imprinted with cords.