THRACIAN ROCK SANCTUARY NEAR THE VILLAGE OF STRELKOVO (Diana Gergova – dianagergova@hotmail.com, Georgi Atanasov) The sanctuary belongs to a group of several rock sanctuaries and massifs with traces of human activities (a stone throne, a rock platform with groove). A big tumular necropolis is situated nearby. Geodesic mapping and astronomic measuring of the site were done. Part of the ritual rock pits situated on the plateau, the two caves connected to each other and an area located in the foot of the caves with a cultural stratum c. 2.50 m in thickness were explored. A big clandestine excavation was registered. Most likely, the information about a treasure of Hellenistic coins could be related to this particular clandestine dig. A destroyed burnt clay plaster was found in the cave. The archaeological material includes mainly pottery and shows that the sanctuary functioned for a long period: from the Early Iron Age (11th – 6th centuries BC) to the Late Antiquity. Early Iron Age fragmentary pottery of the Basarabi type, Early and Late Iron Age hand-made pottery, fragmentary Thracian grey wheel-made pottery and imported Greek pottery (kantharoi, red-gloss pottery and fragments of amphorae) were found. The metal finds include a bronze fibula of the Thracian type, a bronze coin of Alexander the Great, bronze and iron fibulae of the Late Hellenistic and Roman periods, etc.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF STRELKOVO (Georgi Atanasov – geoatal@abv.bg) Part of a wall was documented over the remains of the Thraco-Roman sanctuary. During the explorations, a single-nave church, 20.15 m long and 4.30 m wide, was discovered. The nave is 10.10 m long and the narthex is 6.15 m long. The walls were built of roughly cut stones bonded with mud and are 70 – 80 cm wide. Three courses of the wall were preserved up to 70 cm in height. The apse is 2.80 m in diameter. The finds include fragmentary iron nails and clamps, sherds of the 4th century AD, bricks, tegulae and imbrices. The church was built over the Thraco-Roman sanctuary, probably during the second half of the 4th century AD. Presumably, it was destroyed during the Barbarian invasions at the end of the 4th or the first half of the 5th century AD.