EXCAVATIONS OF THE SETTLEMENT MOUND HIMITLIYATA NEAR THE VILLAGE OF SOKOL (Krassimir Leshtakov – leshtakov@abv.bg) The excavations took an area of 355 sq. m in the central and southern part of the settlement mound and 50 sq. m in its northeastern part. Occupation strata 1 – 3 were explored in the southern part of the mound and occupation stratum 4 was reached in some places. This part of the settlement mound was used for farming activities: dolia, hearths and ovens, situated outside any houses, were discovered. Some of the farming structures were protected with shelters and adobe walls from the north. A trench for the foundation of a wall belonging to the occupation stratum 2 or 1 was discovered. It cuts the adobe destruction of the occupation stratum 3. The wall is oriented northeast – southwest and belonged to the eastern side of a house, which lies within the unexcavated area. According to the pottery and the finds, the occupation stratum 1 may be dated to the end of the Early Bronze Age 2, or the very beginning of the Early Bronze Age 3. The occupation strata lying below date to the Early Bronze Age 2. The pottery is typical of the period and finds many parallels in neighboring settlement mounds (Dyadovo and Ezero) and in the fortified settlement at Mihalich. A set of flint arrowheads and a group of zoomorphic terracotta figurines (a bull, a cow and two calves) deserve special attention among the finds from the occupation strata 1 – 3. The settlement mound was occupied after the end of the Early Bronze Age (3500 – 1900 BC), as is shown by a building of the Roman period (1st – 3rd centuries AD) and Christian burials without grave goods, which makes difficult defining their chronology.