SONDAGE EXCAVATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF VALCHE POLE (Hristo Popov – popovhristo@yahoo.co.uk) Kush Kaya is a conical hill with two rocky massifs dominant on its top. There is stone debris alongside the western periphery of the ridge. Mixed material from the Roman period (2nd – 3rd centuries AD), Early Iron Age (11th – 6th centuries BC) and single sherds of the Late Bronze Age (16th – 12th centuries BC) were found down to 50 – 60 cm in depth in sondage No. 1. Intact cultural layers of the second phase of the Early Iron Age were found below the mixed material. Remains of a house were discovered: a floor level, a hearth and part of a stone plinth. Several terracotta seals used for stamped pottery decoration, fragmentary terracotta anthropomorphic figurines and a bronze pin were found in addition to the typical pottery. The cultural layers were 1.20 – 1.30 m in thickness. Sondage No. 2 was carried out across the stone debris. The debris came from a destroyed fortification wall built of large uneven stones, preserved up to three courses in height. The foundations of the wall lie on the bedrock. The material found below the foundations allows the construction of the fortification wall to be dated to the 8th – 7th centuries BC. Remains of a house of the Late Bronze Age were discovered in sondage No. 3: a floor level, plasters, part of a fallen wall of lath-and-plaster and a hearth. The house was burnt. The pottery displays the main shapes of coarse and fine tableware and the typical decoration, known from other archaeological sites in the East Rhodope Mountain and the middle river valley of Maritsa.