EXPLORATIONS OF EARLY HELLENISTIC BUILDING ABOVE THE ANCIENT TOWN OF KABYLE (Peter Delev – peter.delev@yahoo.com) In 1991 – 1992, the remains of an Early Hellenistic monumental building (Building A) with two rooms and walls nearly 2 m in width were explored. In 2005, a sondage measuring 5 m by 2.50 m was excavated. A small part of a wall, approximately oriented according to the walls of Building A, was discovered within the sondage. The wall is monumental, 1 m in width, built of large irregular and relatively well faced stone blocks. There is a core of smaller stones between the blocks forming the inner and the outer faces of the wall. The newly discovered wall is identical to the outer wall of Building A and most likely it belongs to another building, called Building B. A number of fragmentary tiles found in the sondage support this interpretation. The finds from the sondage are identical to those found in Building A and date to the Early Hellenistic period (the end of the 4th – 3rd centuries BC). The newly discovered Building B and the difference in the width of the walls of Buildings A allow us to identify Building A as a defensive construction (rectangular fortification tower). The fortification tower was an element of the Hellenistic defensive system of Kabyle blocking the access to the ancient town alongside the ridge of the Zaichi Vrah Hill.

EXPLORATIONS OF THE HELLENISTIC TYRSIS ABOVE KABYLE (Peter Delev – peter.delev@yahoo.com) The exploration of the sondage of 2005 was finished. The destruction layer lies on a leveled platform. A badly destroyed wall B, earlier than wall A, was discovered. A new sondage, 5 m by 2.50 m in size, was carried out. Parts of two walls (C and D) were explored. Wall C is oriented west – east and is 60 – 65 cm in width. It has two faces of middle-sized stones and an emplectum of small stones. A corner of wall D, 58 – 60 cm in width, was discovered to the north of wall C. A handle of a kantharos of the end of the 2nd – 1st century BC was found. This is the latest find from the site and testifies that the tyrsis functioned during the Late Hellenistic period. The sondage was widened in order any intersection between walls A, C and D and any eventual connection between them to be located. The situation did not allow us to draw any conclusion about the sequence in the construction of walls A and D. Both of them have different structure and orientation from walls B and C, which presumably were connected to each other. Walls A and D look later than walls B and C. The walls discovered in both sondages display at least three construction periods within the Hellenistic period, which however cannot be precisely dated. The situation from the explorations shows active reconstructions of the architectural structures in the inner area of the tyrsis, situated between the big rectangular tower to the west and the rock massif to the south and east. The reconstructions of the tyrsis, which was part of the fortification system of Kabyle, most likely were related to the turbulent events in the history of the city during the Hellenistic period.