ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR KERMEN (Krasimir Nikov – k_nikov29@yahoo.com, Andrei Stoitsov) Nineteen graves were explored in a flat necropolis. Some of the graves had been marked by circles or semicircles of stones, constructed on the ancient terrain. Sherds were found among the stones. The funerary ritual was inhumation in a Hocker position. The deceased were rested either on their left or on their right side, oriented to the east or to the west. Most deceased were children, arranged in a semicircle around two adults. The grave goods included pottery, mostly jugs and kantharoi, terracotta spindle whorls, flint flakes and a bronze pendant. An oval pit, 5 m by 5 m in size and c. 70 cm deep, was explored at c. 15 m to the east of the necropolis. There is a second pit, c. 2 m deep, dug out into the center of the first one. The pits contained fragmentary pottery (jugs, kantharoi, amphora-like vessels and dolia), animal bones, ash, charcoal, three fragmentary horn plates and two pierced shells used like pendants. Judging from the pottery, the necropolis and the pits dated to the end of the Late Bronze Age (12th century BC). A cremation grave was explored. The ashes were placed in a Thracian krater, placed upside down, and there was a dish on top of it. The krater was supported with sherds from two Greek amphorae. The grave goods included two bronze finger-rings, a bronze fibula of the Thracian type, terracotta objects, a Greek black-gloss lekythos and a glass bead. Thracian kantharos and jug were placed close to the krater. The grave dated after 350 BC. Three ditches, dated from the second quarter of the 5th to the beginning of the 3rd centuries BC, were explored. The ditches contained sherds from Greek amphorae. One ditch contained a pile of stones with a ceramic urn with ashes placed on top of it. Several mediaeval houses and farm buildings were documented on the site.