ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF ZLATAR (Stela Doncheva – donchevastela@yahoo.com) The explorations continued to the north of the two metallurgical workshops discovered. The Mediaeval stratum was situated at 30 – 40 cm in depth. The area of the production center reached up to 800 sq. m until now. Remains of a workshop were discovered in the northern part of the production center: a metallurgical furnace, an area in front of the furnace and a pit for waste production. The finds included sherds, fragmentary and 16 intact melting pots, iron tools, slag, bronze melts, lead production models, a Byzantine coin, appliqués, crosses, belt chapes and animal bones. During the excavations of the production center, 524 metal objects were found so far. The Byzantine folles of Leo VI the Wise and Romanos I Lekapenos testified that the production center functioned during the end of the 9th and the first half of the 10th century AD.