EXPLORATIONS NEAR BURGAS (Miroslav Klasnakov – miro_klasnakov@abv.bg, Tatyana Stefanova, Maria Gurova) The settlement mound is 80.35 m in diameter and 2.70 m in height. Two sondages, each 3.50 m by 10 m in size, were carried out in the southern part of the mound. The depth that was reached is 2.60 m. Fragmentary ceramic vessels from the Late Neolithic period (late 6th – early 5th millennia BC) were found and they have typical shapes and decoration. The stratum from the Late Chalcolithic period (second half of the 5th millennium BC) is destroyed. Sherds painted with graphite and with nail decoration were found. The Early Chalcolithic stratum (first half of the 5th millennium BC) has two layers. Four houses, destroyed by fire, were partly explored. House No. 1/2 was constructed of wattle-and-daub plastered with clay. The floor level was trampled. The oven is U-shaped, 1.30 m by 1.60 m in size, built on a platform 8 – 10 cm in height. House No. 5 was identified because of a pile of burned debris. House No. 3 was constructed of wattle-and-daub plastered with clay. Thirteen postholes, oriented north – south, and two lines of three and four postholes each, oriented east – west, were documented. The floor level is of trampled clay. The Early Chalcolithic pottery includes pots, dishes, bowls, cups, jugs, lily-shaped vessels, dolia and anthropomorphic vessels with female breasts in relief and holes designating the eyes. The decoration is incised, pricked, stamped, bands in relief, buds and hollows. White encrustation, white painted and graphite decoration occur. The finds include a copper awl with bone handle, anthropomorphic figurines, a small table with eyes, a ceramic prism with incised proto-script signs, flint scrapers, retouched plates, chisels, Spondylus, etc. Wild (aurochs, wisents, deer, red deer, fallow deer and rabbits) and domestic animals (ox, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs) were documented in ratio 15:85 %. Triticum aestivum/durum, Triticum monococcum/dicoccum, Hordeum vulgare var. nudum, Lens culinaris and Fraxinus sp. were documented.