ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SOZOPOL (Petar Leshtakov – junior_1_bg@yahoo.com) A sondage was carried out on an area of 42 sq. m. A structure dug into the ground, consisting of three interconnected pits, was documented. The central pit measures 5.40 m by 4.60 m and is 80 cm in depth. The other two pits are 45 – 55 cm in depth. A pile of clay plaster from a hearth or oven was discovered in the central pit. A pile of fragmentary burned clay wall plaster, sherds, animal bones and tools were found in the northeastern pit. The pottery has cannelures, pricked and painted decoration and decoration in relief, and dates to the end of the Late Neolithic period (end of the 6th – beginning of the 5th millennia BC). An area of c. 315 sq. m was explored. Nine trenches from the ancient period, oriented east – west, 50 – 80 cm in width and dug into the prehistoric stratum, were documented. They are interpreted as being related to agricultural activities. A burned Late Neolithic house, 10.50 m by 5.20 m in size, was explored. Fragmentary burned clay wall plaster, a rectangular oven, grain storage, a millstone and Late Neolithic sherds were discovered. A sondage, 7.50 m by 4 m in size, was carried out. A ditch with V-like cross section, 2 – 2.30 m in width and 60 – 80 cm in depth, was registered. Fragmentary burned wall clay plaster, millstones, a whetstone, pestles, flint artifacts, bone awls, Late Neolithic sherds, etc. were found inside the ditch. The pottery includes dishes, bowls and jugs decorated with Barbotino, cannelures, pricked decoration and decoration in relief. The osteological material belongs mainly to domestic animals (sheep and goats, ox, pigs). The wild animals include red deer and fallow deer. An area of 150 sq. m was explored. Remains of a stone quarry that functioned during the 4th – 2nd centuries BC were discovered.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS NEAR SOZOPOL (Petar Leshtakov – junior_1_bg@yahoo.com) The exploration of pit No. 1, documented in 2008, continued in the eastern part of the settlement. Two smaller pits (Nos. 1A and 1B) were discovered inside pit No. 1. Pit No. 1A had ellipsoid layout and was 1.60 m by 1.80 m in size and 70 cm in depth. It contained ash, small pieces of charcoal, sherds, fragments of burned clay wall plaster, animal bones, and flint and bone tools. Pit No. 1B had ellipsoid layout and was 5.60 m by 2.20 m in size and 85 cm in depth. It contained charcoal, fragments of burned clay wall plaster, sherds and animal bones. The pottery was decorated with cannelures, small holes, Barbotine and painted ornaments, and dated to the end of the Late Neolithic period (5100 – 4900 BC). An area of c. 170 sq. m was explored in the western periphery of the settlement. Fourteen parallel trenches, dug into a clay layer, were discovered. They were 2.30 – 9.60 m long, 50 – 80 cm wide and situated at 50 – 70 cm from each other. The trenches contained sherds from the Late Classical and Hellenistic periods and from the 2nd – 4th centuries AD. Probably the trenches were remains from agricultural activities, related to a vineyard. A layer, 5 – 10 cm thick, was documented. It contained fragments of burned clay wall plaster and a few Late Neolithic sherds. Two Neolithic pits, up to 1.60 m in diameter and up to 40 cm in depth, were explored.

EXPLORATIONS NEAR SOZOPOL (Miroslav Klasnakov – miro_klasnakov@abv.bg, Petar Leshtakov) The Late Neolithic stratum was 20 – 45 cm thick. A burned house, 10.80 m by 12.95 m in size and cut by five vineyard trenches of the Roman period, was explored within the stratum. Twelve ovens with U-shaped and rectangular layouts were explored. Four piles of debris, probably originating from burned houses, six piles of sherds, charcoal and animal bones and two piles of stones were discovered. Thirty-two pits were explored, containing sherds, fragments fro terracotta anthropomorphic figurines, flint artifacts (cores, retouched plates, combined tools, scrapers), stone tools (adzes, axes, pestles), horn and bone tools, querns, animal bones and small pieces of charcoal. The pottery included dishes, bowls, jugs, pots, etc., which were synchronous to the end of Karanovo III and Karanovo IV. The osteological analysis of the animal bones discovered from 2008 to 2010 found the presence of auroch, deer, red deer, fallow deer, boar, fox, wild cat, bear, rabbit, Mediterranean monk seal, dolphin, fishes, birds, ox, sheep, goat, pig and dog. The bones from domestic animals prevailed. Sherds from black-gloss pelike and lekane of the second half of the 4th – 3rd century BC were found, probably related to the necropolis of Apollonia. Part of a stone quarry of the second half of the 4th – 3rd century BC, 13 m by 8 m in size, was explored. Three ashlars, still not cut out from the rock, were documented. The finds included sherds from a black-gloss kylix, a pyxis and an oinochoe. Sixty-six vineyards trenches of the 2nd – 4th centuries AD were documented. They were 1 – 19.40 m long, 0.35 – 1.95 m wide and 15 – 80 cm deep. The finds included sherds, including from amphorae and dolia, buildings ceramics and a fragment from glass vessel.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SOZOPOL (Krastina Panaiotova – kpanayotova@abv.bg, Margarit Damyanov) Ten sondages were carried out. A layer c. 20 cm thick was discovered, containing single finds: sherds mostly from dishes, some of them with Late Neolithic decoration, a quern, stone pestles, one of them with traces from ochre, two flint artifacts. The finds probably slid down along the slope from the Neolithic settlement situated nearby and occupied during the second half of the 6th millennium BC.