EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF POKROVNIK (Zdravko Dimitrov – zdravkodimitrov74@gmail.com, Milena Raicheva) In Sector North, 15 buildings from a _vicus_ and pottery kilns of the 2nd – 4th centuries AD were discovered. The upper stratum dated to the 4th century AD, judging from coins and pottery, while the lower stratum dated to the 3rd century AD. In addition, finds of the second half of the 2nd century AD were also discovered. In Sector Center, 11 buildings from the _vicus_, pottery kilns and a family tomb (mausoleum) were discovered. The mausoleum dated to the second half of the 3rd – beginning of the 4th centuries AD. It was situated in a sacred precinct with an area of c. 0.1 ha, surrounded by wall. The mausoleum was built over two earlier buildings of the 2nd – 3rd centuries AD. It measured 6.60 m by 5.80 m in size and consisted of an upper part built in _opus mixtum_ and a subterranean part (hypogeum). The hypogeum had an entrance, an antechamber 1.97 m by 1.84 m in size and two burial chambers, one of them looted in antiquity. The first burial chamber measured 5.20 m by 1.97 m and a coin of Gallienus was discovered in its foundation. The second burial chamber was the primary one. Initially, it was a tomb that measured 3.30 m by 1.40 m; subsequently, it was incorporated into the mausoleum. The tomb contained the body of a man oriented to the west. The grave goods included a glass vessel, a glass amphora, a terracotta lamp, a bronze stylus, a bronze inkwell and a small bronze box. During the 4th – 5th centuries AD, the mausoleum was transformed into a warehouse that was burned c. AD 450. During the Ottoman period, a Christian cemetery appeared on the site and 71 graves were excavated. In Sector South the following structures were discovered: 11 pottery kilns, an early villa surrounded by buildings of the 3rd century AD, a villa rustica consisting of over 40 rooms with a bath and four courtyards dated to the end of the 3rd – first half of the 5th centuries AD, and a _vicus_ with a single-naved and single-apsed church of AD c. 450 – 600, built over the ruins of the villa rustica. The villa rustica had three construction periods. During the first period it had a peristyle courtyard and a bath. During the second period, dated after AD 350, reconstructions were carried out. During the third period, dated to the end of the 4th – first half of the 5th centuries AD, the adjacent outer courtyards were built. The villa was destroyed, probably during the Hunnic invasions that occurred c. AD 450. The finds from the excavations included bronze and silver coins and a fragment from a Roman military diploma of AD 74.

EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF POKROVNIK (Iliya Kulov – iliakulov@yahoo.com) In 2019, the monuments explored in 2017 – 2018 were dismantled, moved to a new place, reconstructed and restored due to the construction of a highway: the Roman villa of the 3rd – 5th centuries AD, the baths and the tombs of the 3rd – beginning of the 4th centuries AD, the Early Christian church of the 5th – 6th centuries AD and the pottery kilns of the 4th – 6th centuries AD. Storage rooms of the 4th – 5th centuries AD that accommodated 11 dolia were documented around the family tomb (mausoleum). Dolium No. 12 was discovered to the west of the two tombs. Grave No. 72 was discovered in the necropolis of the Ottoman period (17th – 18th centuries); the grave goods included a silver and a copper finger-ring. The archaeological park was completed.