ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR HARMANLI (Tatyana Kancheva–Ruseva – ruseva_t@abv.bg, Veselin Ignatov, Krasimir Velkov, Konstantin Gospodinov) Sector 1. Ditch No. 2 was explored on the rock sanctuary. The ditch is 9.30 m in length, 2 m in width and 70 cm in depth and is parallel to ditch No. 1. Three layers containing pottery of the 1 millennium BC, small pieces of charcoal and fragments of burned lath-and-plaster were discovered in ditch No. 2. Both ditches and the structures discovered in the sanctuary were part of a ritual complex. Sector 2. Two semi-dug sunken-floored mediaeval houses were partly explored. They have rectangular layout and measure 4 m by 3 m. A stone hearth was discovered in the southeastern corner of one of the houses. Nine pits with cylindrical shape, measuring up to 2.50 m in depth and up to 1.30 m in diameter, were explored. Charcoal, ash, fragments of burned lath-and-plaster, slag, animal bones, shells and mediaeval sherds were found in the pits. A human skeleton and parts of the hands of a second individual were discovered in pit No. 13. There were no finds in the pit and evidently, this was not a regular burial. Sector 4. Two semi-dug sunken-floored mediaeval houses were explored.