ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR SOFIA (Anelia Bozhkova – aneliabozkova@yahoo.com, Ventsislav Dinchev) In the Eastern Sector of the site, 53 Thracian and Mediaeval pits were explored. The Thracian ritual pits contained animal bones and sherds of the Early Iron Age, the Classical and the Hellenistic periods. Several piles of fragmentary wattle-and-daub or amphorae sherds were discovered. Twelve Mediaeval sunken-floored houses, 2 – 4 m by 2.50 – 3 m in size, were explored. Stoves were discovered in the houses and sherds of the 8th – 9th centuries AD and bone awls were found. In the Western Sector of the site, c. 10 ritual pits of the 5th – 1st centuries BC were explored, containing fragmentary burned wattle-and-daub, Thracian sherds, fragments from portable terracotta hearths and fragments from terracotta andirons. Two horse skeletons were discovered close to the pits. A Late Antique cemetery was discovered and 72 Christian burials were explored. Some graves were covered with tegulae and/or bricks, while others contained carbonized remains from timber planks that either covered the burial pits or were from wooden coffins. Grave goods were found in some graves: belt buckles, earrings and coins of the 5th century AD.