ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VODEN (Krum Bacvarov – krum.bacvarov@googlemail.com, Krasimir Leshtakov, Nadezhda Todorova, Vanya Petrova) The site covered an area of c. 9.5 ha and consisted of a settlement mound and a related complex of dug out structures, situated to the north and northeast. The dug out structures explored dated to the end of the 6th – 5th millennia BC and belonged to the Late Neolithic period (Karanovo IV Culture), the transition towards the Early Chalcolithic period (Maritsa Culture) and the Chalcolithic period. The dug out structures overlapped and were asynchronous with different size, shape and depth. They contained stone tools, sherds, querns, bones from ox and deer, burned debris. One structure (Karanovo IV Culture) could be interpreted as a sunken-floored building, 7 m by 6.80 m in size, with an entrance to the south and an oven in its northeastern corner. Two parallel ditches of the 5th – 1st centuries BC were explored, situated at c. 30 m from each other, c. 2.50 m wide and up to 1.20 m deep. The finds from the excavations included stone tools, sherds (including from anthropomorphic and zoomorphic vessels), figurines, bone awls and needles, antler hammers, appliqués, bracelets and pendants made from Spondylus, Glycymeris, Cardium and from animal teeth, flint small plates, scrapers and cutters. The archaeobotanical material included einkorn, emmer, wheat, millet, barley, vetch, lentils and chickpea.