EXPLORATIONS OF THE CEMETERY AND THE NORTHERN PRECINCTS OF ‘ST. FORTY MARTYRS’ CHURCH IN VELIKO TARNOVO (Konstantin Totev – konstantin_totev@abv.bg, Evgeni Dermendzhiev) One hundred and seventy-eight graves were explored. Four burials of the late 19th – early 20th centuries are the latest ones. Sixty-nine graves were discovered in the Muslim cemetery of 18th – 19th centuries. One hundred and five Christian burials were explored in the mediaeval Bulgarian cemetery that functioned from 1270s to 1350s. Boards and nails from coffins, bricks and tiles with cross and inscription IC ХС NH KА, small ceramic cups and bowls, a silver ring, bronze earrings, bronze and silver buttons, a necklace, 8 coins, an iron belt buckle, an arrowhead, a padlock, gold- and silver-lace textiles, and remains of leather clothes were found. Three lime-pits and a lime-slaking place related to the repairs of the church during the late 13th – early 14th centuries were discovered. More than 1000 fragments of frescoes dated to 1230 were found. In addition, a pit full with fragmentary frescoes was excavated. The frescoes are decorated with human faces and nimbi, colour backgrounds, frames, letters and gold-foil. Twenty-three middens from the end of the 12th to the middle of the 14th centuries were explored. Ceramic vessels, sgraffito sherds, 24 copper coins, bronze and silver buttons and earrings, glass bracelets and beads, fragmentary frescoes, etc. were found inside. A workshop for non-ferrous metallurgy of the late 12th – early 13th centuries was discovered. Two furnaces, slag, part of a stone cast, and a bone point of bellows were found. Part of the supporting wall of the 6th – 7th centuries, and two hearths and a floor level with hearth from a dwelling of the Thracian period were explored.