EXPLORATIONS OF TUMULI NEAR SIMEONOVGRAD (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petar Delev) Piles of sherds, ceramic vessels, lath-and-plaster fragments, terracotta figurines, loom weights and spindle whorls of the 8th – 6th centuries BC were found on the site. Most likely, these are the remains of a settlement or a pit sanctuary. Two tumuli were built up on the same place. Tumulus No. 1 is 3.68 m in height and 28.50 m in diameter. Sherds of the 8th – 6th centuries BC were found within the embankment. A semi-circular wall of boulders was constructed in the northern and southeastern tumular periphery. Three graves were discovered. Graves Nos. 1 and 2 are Christian, secondary and without grave goods. The central grave is a pyre and dates to the 5th century BC. It was dug within the primary small mound heaped in the base of the tumulus. The ashes were placed within an Attic red figure krater, dug under the pyre and used as an urn. A small gold plate and an iron fibula were placed inside the urn, together with the ashes. The funerary construction was covered with a pile of boulders. Tumulus No. 2 is 5.30 m in height and 36 m in diameter. Three graves were discovered. The central grave dates to the 4th century BC and consists of a pyre more than 2.50 m in diameter. It is situated in the tumular center and in the base of the embankment. A silver appliqué was found in the pyre. Grave No. 2 is in the eastern tumular periphery. It is a pit with an inhumation burial and dates to the 4th century AD. Grave No. 3 is in the eastern periphery and in the base of the tumulus. It is covered with tiles and dates to the 5th – 6th centuries AD. More than 10 ceramic vessels of the 8th – 6th centuries BC and of the Classical period, including a stamped Thasian amphora of the 4th century BC, originate from the two tumuli.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SIMEONOVGRAD (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Petar Delev) The tumuli are situated to the southeast of the site in the Asara locality, which played a central role in the settlement pattern of the region from the Bronze Age till the Middle Ages. The areas below and around the tumuli were explored in 2006. A layer, 15 – 20 cm in thickness, was registered at 40 – 60 cm in depth, in sondages Nos. 1, 3, 7, 8, under the embankment of tumulus No. 2 that was built later. The layer contained sherds of hand-made vessels with decoration typical of the second phase of the Early Iron Age (8th – 6th centuries BC). Three pits, 0.60 – 1.20 m in diameter and 0.20 – 1.10 m in depth, were explored under tumulus No. 1 and in its periphery, near to the piles of sherds discovered in 2005. Pit No. 1 has a cylindrical shape, pit No. 2 has a hemispherical shape and pit No. 3 has a shape of truncated cone. The pits contained sherds, animal bones, fragmentary lath-and-plaster and fragments of spindle whorls. Sherds of hand-made decorated vessels, two pyramidal loom weights and sherds of wheel-made vessels with painted geometric decoration were found in pit No. 3. Some ornaments of the wheel-made vessels are similar to the decorative motifs on the Late Geometric pottery known from Troy (strata 8 and 9) and the Aeolian cultural circle. This pottery dates from the end of the 9th to the beginning of the 7th centuries BC and is provisionally called G 2 – 3. A complex of pits existed on that area during the second phase of the Early Iron Age.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SIMEONOVGRAD (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Yana Mutafchieva) The site was situated to the south of the tumuli explored in 2005 – 2006. Nine ellipsoid, truncated-cone-like and hemispherical ritual pits were explored, containing Thracian sherds of the 8th – 6th centuries BC, terracotta figurines, terracotta spindle whorls, fragmentary clay plaster and animal bones.