ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VELIKAN (Borislav Borislavov – b_borislavov@hotmail.com) Remains from structures of the 19th century were discovered in the Northern Sector: piles of fragmentary building ceramics, animal bones, a hearth, sherds, iron nails and tools, tobacco pipes, faience, coins of the second half of the 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries, a bronze craftsman’s stamp with the name of МАРКУ ДРАПОВ (Marku Drapov). The stratigraphy of the site was documented in the Central Section. Two levels of a cobble road were documented dated to the 19th century and Late Antiquity. The Late Antique level was situated over a stratum of the 4th – 3rd centuries BC. Sherds and eight coins of the 4th – 5th centuries AD were found. Material and structures of the second half of the 4th – 2nd centuries BC were discovered in Trenches В2, С2, D5, Е1-4, G1-5, H1-5, I 1-5, J1-5 and K 1-5. Debris from seven sunken-floored houses was explored. The finds from the houses comprised four bronze coins of Maroneia of c. 350 BC, a coin of Demetrius Poliorcetes, fragments from terracotta escharai and andirons, spindle whorls, loom weights, fishing hooks, small knives, flint nuclei, flakes and tools, sherds from pots, jugs, cups, dishes, bowls, kraters and dolia, animal bones. Houses Nos. 1, 4, 5 and 6 dated to the 340s BC and Houses Nos. 2, 3 and 7 dated to the 3rd – 2nd centuries BC. Three ritual pits were explored in Trenches D5/D6, containing pieces from charcoal from oak and pine, animal bones and sherds. A terracotta melting pot was found in Pit No. 2. A bronze fibula of 150 – 50 BC and bronze and silver appliqués were also discovered.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VELIKAN (Stanimir Stoichev – s_stoichev@mail.bg) Early Neolithic sherds were found on the site. A house of the Early Neolithic period (Karanovo I Culture) was explored. It had an ellipsoid layout, 7.50 m by 5 m in size, with an oven. Fragmentary wattle-and-daub, charcoal, sherds, legs from a small terracotta cult table, flint scrapers, animal bones, river shells and snails were found. Twelve ritual pits of the 5th – 1st centuries BC were discovered, one of them containing a skeleton of a sacrificed horse, and a circular structure with a pit in its northern periphery was excavated. A Late Hellenistic circular dug out structure was explored, 9.50 m by 10.50 m in size. Four postholes from a house, 6 m by 4.50 m in size, with an oven and four storage pits, were discovered inside the circular structure. A house with an oven of the 8th century AD, a sunken-floored house of the 10th – 11th centuries, a house of the 11th – 12th century and a dugout of the 12th – 13th centuries were explored.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VELIKAN (Yanko Dimitrov – yanko_aim@mail.bg, Evgenia Komatarova–Balinova, Petar Dimitrov) Seventeen houses with one or two rooms of the 11th – 12th centuries were explored. Their walls were up to 1.05 m wide, built of uneven or roughly-cut stones bonded with mud. The Large Building measured 10/12.80 m by 10/12.30 m and had six rooms. Several sgraffito dishes were found in the building. Twenty-four dugouts with stone stoves of the 11th – 12th centuries were explored and 198 storage and midden pits were documented on the site. Fifty-four Christian graves were discovered as well. Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Hellenistic and Roman sherds were found on the site. Other finds from the Roman period included a bronze fibula, sherds from red-gloss pottery and bronze coins from Claudius to the Constantinian dynasty.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VELIKAN (Stanimir Stoichev – s_stoichev@mail.bg, Angel Angelov) Twelve Thracian pits of the Late Iron Age (5th – 1st centuries BC) were explored. Thirty-two dugouts, eight houses built in rubble masonry, 175 storage and midden pits were explored in the Mediaeval settlement, which destroyed significant part of the earlier occupation layers. The settlement existed during the 9th – 12th centuries and had three construction periods. At the beginning of the 13th century a Christian cemetery appeared on the already abandoned buildings of the settlement and it existed through the entire 13th century. Fifty-two graves were discovered and thus their total number reached 105. Reburials were documented in part of the graves and also, some of the burial pits overlapped. The ratio between men, women and children buried in the cemetery is approximately equal. Often the burial pits were fired before the funeral or charcoal was placed inside the burial pit, mostly around the head of the dead. The grave goods included bronze buttons and finger-rings. A child was buried in Grave No. 78 and a flint-studded threshing-board was placed over the body. The body of the dead in Grave No. 79 was cut in two and the two halves were placed one over other in anatomical order and oriented north – south.