KOZARNIKA CAVE (Nikolai Sirakov – nikolaysirakov@gmail.com, Jean-Luc Guadelli) The explorations continued in Sector I in the entrance hall of the cave and in Trenches GH29-30 in the next Sector III. Flint artifacts from the transition between the Middle and the Upper Paleolithic periods were found in some sectors. In Trenches DE7-10 in Sector I the explorations of the latest phases of the Middle Paleolithic period (57,000 – 47,000/45,000 BP) continued and the explorations of its penultimate phases was launched, identified in the contexts of the lower part of Stratum 9–9c, the contact zone of Strata 9c/10a and the upper part of Stratum 10a. Predecessors of the Middle / Upper Paleolithic transition within the Levallois and similar concepts (scrapers and a bifacial arrowhead) occurred in the flint assemblages from the penultimate phases of the Middle Paleolithic period. The osteological remains from the hunted prey included wild horses and goats, deer, steppe bison and rarely mammoths, while the osteological remains from the predators included mostly cave bears and rarely foxes. Of special importance here would have been the presence of Homo sapiens who emigrated from the Middle East to the Balkans, but were still a Middle Paleolithic population. The newly discovered phases of the Middle Paleolithic period could be dated between 80/75 ka and 55 kа ВР.