ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN PLISKA (Pavel Georgiev – pavel_g@gbg.bg, Radoslav Vasilev) The relationship between the Small Timber Fortification and the Large Timber Fortification was explored. It was found that an extension of the western wall of the Small Timber Fortification turned to the east and thus it shaped the southwestern corner of an extended fortified area that covered c. 1 ha. The extended area was protected with a double palisade plastered with sun-dried bricks from the three sides, while from the north it was connected with the primary area of the Small Timber Fortification. The integration of the Small into the Large Timber Fortification was done in specific way: although the Small Timber Fortification was enlarged, it still remained separated in the back side of the Residence of the Khans. The foundations of the entrance of the Small Timber Fortification were discovered in sondage XVIII situated in the middle of the southern fortification wall. They were situated under two later semi-dug sunken-floored houses of the 9th – 11th centuries, which contained an anonymous Byzantine follis of Class A2, two lead seals (one of them belonging to “Petros, the Domestikos of the Scholai”) and a glazed jug. A house with a stove was explored in sondage XV, dug out above the ditch of the fortification wall. A coin of Leo VI the Philosopher was found in the stratum above the house. A sunken-floored platform, 15 m wide and up to 1.40 m deep, was discovered above the southeastern corner of the Small Timber Fortification which was burned in AD 811 during the invasion of the Byzantine army led by Nikephoros I Genikos. The floor of the platform was paved with bricks. Three cooking stoves were built under the floor and several ovens, probably used during ritual ceremonies, were constructed nearby. The sunken-floored ritual platform dated to the first half of the 9th century AD. An amphora-like vessel was restored with sherds found in 2008 and it showed the engraved symbol of the proto-Bulgarian Khans: IYI. Seven structures of the 8th – 11th centuries were discovered in sondage XIV.