ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR ETROPOLE (Aneta Petrova – anp@mail.bg) Eleven sondages were carried out and two Late Antique fortification walls, inner and outer, were documented. The walls protected an area of c. 0.43 ha and were 1.40 m thick, built of roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar. Late Antique pottery, dolia, terracotta lamps and tools were found. A Late Antique building was located in the eastern part of the site, adjoining the inner fortification wall. It was 6.95 m by 3.90 m in size, with two rooms, built of roughly-cut stones bonded with mortar. A groove, which was c. 80 cm in depth and accommodated a water conduit, was cut out into the bedrock under the northern room. The grove was connected to an opening into the northern wall. Late Antique pottery was found. Platforms of small stones and ruble were explored in the southern higher part of the site. Material from the Revival period and the 20th century (pottery, roof-tiles, nails, animal bones and a counter of Nuremberg of the end of the 19th century) prevailed in the layers above the platforms, while Late Antique and Thracian pottery of the 5th – 1st centuries BC was found under the platforms. Iron slag was found, too. The finds discovered at the inner fortification wall included Late Antique and Thracian pottery of the 5th – 1st centuries BC, fragmentary wattle-and-daub, a spindle whorl and a half tetrateron of Manuel I Komnenos.