ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF IVANOVO (Svetlana Venelinova – lihnida_sv@abv.bg, Maria Gurova) An area of 69 sq. m, situated to the west and south of the sondage carried out in 2008, was explored. The upper stratum in trenches I7, J7 and J8, reached down to 0.60 – 1.05 m in depth. Debris, piles of fragments of burned clay wall plasters, floor levels, animal bones, pottery, horn tools and flint artifacts were discovered. A timber construction of parallel planks and transverse poles was explored over an area 3.30 m by 2.80 m in size and situated at 2.28 – 2.98 m in depth. A row of postholes was discovered. A timber construction, probably belonging to the palisade of one of the settlements, was documented. The flint assemblage of the Chalcolithic period included scrapers, retouched flakes, a combined tool (scraper with awl), fragments, etc. The traceological analysis allowed the functional identification of 13 tools (flakes from sickles, flakes for scraping leather, a scraper for scraping leather and cutting bones). It was found that flakes from sickles were reused for scraping leather. Such a reutilization was documented in other Chalcolithic flint assemblages, too.