ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF MIRKOVO (Ilian Boyanov – ilianboyanov@nbu.bg) During explorations carried out in the middle of the 20th century, fortification walls and a circular building were documented. In 2011, stones and fragmentary burned wattle-and-daub from the walls of houses of the 4th – 2nd centuries BC were discovered. The finds included coins of Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great, Thracian sherds from pots, dishes, bowls and dolia, two sherds from imported black-gloss skyphos and kantharos of the middle of the 4th century BC, a bronze arrowhead and an iron fibula of the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC. The osteological material included bones from sheep, goats, ox, pigs, deer, roe deer and bears. Part of the southern fortification wall of a Roman burgus was discovered, built of roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar. A wall was documented separating two rooms. Pottery, two fibulae and coins from Trajan Decius to Aurelian were found in the rooms. The fortification dated to the second half of the 3rd century AD.