EARLY FORTIFICATION IN THE INNER TOWN OF PLISKA (Pavel Georgiev – pavel_g@gbg.bg, Radoslav Vasilev) The eastern gate of the early timber fortification was discovered. The passage is more than 6 m in length and 2.70 – 2.90 m in width. Its walls consist of two rows consisting of four wooden posts each, placed in postholes down to 3.50 m in depth. During the 10th and the beginning of the 11th centuries, four sunken-floored houses and another building were constructed over the remains of the passage. Remains of a covered passage with timber construction were discovered at the level of the ancient terrain, at 45 – 50 m to the north, alongside the eastern wall of the fortification. Six pairs of postholes were excavated at 15 m in distance. Trenches for two parallel timber walls were discovered between the postholes. The passage was c. 3.50 m in width and more than 200 m in length. It connected the Palace of the Khans with the rampart of the inner earthen fortification of Pliska. The explored area was inhabited during the 10th – 11th centuries. More than 10 sunken-floored houses with stoves were discovered. Pottery was found. Two Christian graves, belonging to a woman and a child and coming from the latest occupation period in Pliska, and fragmentary stone funerary monuments were found in the southeastern sector. A trench for a palisade oriented to the north adjoined the northeastern corner of the fortification. A building constructed of stones and roofed with tiles, dated to the end of the 10th – beginning of the 11th centuries, was explored from the inner side of the fortification. Pavements and several sunken-floored houses were discovered close to the eastern and northern walls of the fortification. Pottery of the 10th – 11th centuries was found. The northern gate of the fortification was discovered. It is identical to the eastern gate. One of the earliest terracotta water-conduits of Pliska passed through the northern gate.