ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF BOROVAN (Georgi Ganetsovski – ganecovski_ar@abv.bg) The site covers an area of 12 000 sq. m. An area of 35 sq. m was explored. Sondage No. 1 measures 5 m by 2 m, but it was widened. Architectural remains and finds from a house that was burned during the Early Chalcolithic period (in the beginning of the 5th millennium BC) were discovered. Piles of burned plaster from the collapsed clay walls of the house, several post-holes and part of an oven were uncovered. Millstones and fragmentary dolia were found. Sondage also 2 measured 5 m by 2 m. Three cultural layers were documented. Layer 1 is badly destroyed. A pile of burned pottery, animal bones and ash was discovered. The pottery predominantly includes pots and is decorated with bands in relief, nail impressions, shallow-cut or scratched lines, and the so called “shell ornaments”. It comes from the Transition period between the Chalcolithic period and the Early Bronze Age and dates to the mid 4th millennium BC. Layer 2 is c. 40 cm in thickness. Plaster from an oven, 1.10 m in diameter, Early Chalcolithic pottery and burned clay plaster, probably represent remains from a burned house. A ritual pit filled with ash, sherds and animal bones, probably from ox, was explored in Layer 3. The pit dates to the Early Chalcolithic period. The Early Chalcolithic pottery from sondages 1 and 2 includes pots, dishes, bowls and dolia, decorated with incised geometric ornaments, often with white incrustation, cannelures, buds in relief and nail impressions. It is related to the developed phases of the Early Chalcolithic Gradeshnitsa Culture. The finds include an anthropomorphic figurine with incised decoration, a stone cylindrical nucleus, a terracotta model of oven, a zoomorphic figurine, fragments from bottoms of ceramic vessels with pictograms, bone astragals for gaming, stone and flint tools (flint scrapers and cutting plates from sickles, a stone spatula-smoothing tool, etc.).