ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF BIKOVO (Iordan Gatev – iordangatev@yahoo.com) The preliminary field survey testified to occupation during the Early Iron Age (11th – 6th centuries BC), the Late Iron Age (5th – 1st centuries BC), the Late Antiquity and the Ottoman period. Forty-one sondages were carried out on an area 1100 m long. Sherds supporting the results from the field survey were found in sondages Nos. 1 – 10. Sherds and burned plaster from the Early Iron Age, the Late Antiquity and the Ottoman period were found in sondages Nos. 11 – 21 and 27. A pit filled with charcoal from oak, poplar and maple, bones from sheep and Early Iron Age pottery was discovered in sondage No. 27. Trenches dug into the ground were documented in the sondages. Sherds from the periods mentioned above, fragmentary burned plaster, a flint scraper and a loom weight were found in the trenches. Sherds from the same periods were found in sondages Nos. 22 – 26 and 28 – 41.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF BIKOVO (Iordan Gatev – iordangatev@yahoo.com) Sherds from the Ottoman period, burned fragmentary wattle-and-daub, Late Antique sherds of the 4th – 6th centuries AD, a bronze coin of Arcadius and an iron arrowhead of the Avarian Type dated to the 6th century AD were found on the site. A demolished Late Antique ramshackle building with probable farming functions was documented. Three ritual pits of the second phase of the Early Iron Age (8th – 6th centuries BC) were explored in sondage No. 27. They contained Thracian sherds, bones from goats, sheep and ox, and charcoal from oak, poplar and maple. Another ritual pit was discovered to the northeast from the three pits. It contained Thracian sherds of the 6th – 5th centuries BC. A flint scraper and a multifunctional flint tool of the Early Iron Age were found on the site.