ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF SREDNYA (Georgi Maistorski – gmaistorski@yahoo.co.uk) The limestone quarry was situated near the spring of the Byala Voda River and at c. 500 m to the west of a rock-cut church. Western, Southern and Northern Sectors in the quarry were documented. A rock-cut cave was explored in the Northern Sector. It was made during the process of cutting out and taking rows of stone blocks. Inscriptions, drawings and signs, over 20 of which dated to the 9th – 10th centuries AD, were incised on the ceiling of the cave. A sondage was carried out in the cave and grooves were discovered. They were made during the horizontal cutting out and taking blocks, 0.80 – 1.20 m long, 0.40 – 0.50 m wide and 0.30 m high. Traces from rows of vertically cut out and taken blocks, 0.80 – 0.90 m long, 0.40 – 0.45 m wide and 0.30 m high, were documented. Sherds of the 9th – 10th centuries AD and a wall of Byzantine amphora with yellow-green slip were found. The limestone blocks mined in the quarry were used for the buildings in Preslav, the second capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom. The rock-cut church was documented. The finds included sherds of the 9th – 10th centuries AD, a copper finger-ring with geometric decoration, an arrowhead, and iron tools, including a chisel.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF SREDNYA (Georgi Maistorski – gmaistorski@yahoo.co.uk) Malkata Peshtera Cave was formed when rows of limestone ashlars were cut out and taken away. Graffiti in the Old Bulgarian language, drawings and signs of the 9th – 10th centuries were documented on the ceiling of the cave. The quarry was divided in three complexes: Western, Southern and Northern. In 2011, sondages were carried out in the eastern sector of the Southern Complex. A rock shelter with beds from the ashlars that were cut out and taken away was explored in Sondage No. 1. The depth of that quarry was over 3 m. Postholes from timber scaffoldings and lifts were documented. Several unfinished ashlars were discovered. Over 14 000 ashlars were extracted from an area of c. 0.1 ha and they might have been used for the construction of a 325 m long sector of the fortification wall of Preslav.