ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF CHARDA (Elena Vasileva – helengnom@yahoo.com, Stefan Bakardzhiev) In 2008, 11 graves from a cemetery of the Ottoman period were explored. Thracian ritual pits of the 4th – 3rd centuries BC were discovered under some of the graves. In 2009, 41 graves were explored. The deceased in the 52 burials, which were explored, were eight children and 39 adults, while the rest were not identifiable. Two graves were cenotaphs. The burials were Muslim and dated to the 15th – 17th centuries. In 2009, seven cylindrical, hemispherical and conical Thracian ritual pits were explored. They contained small pieces of charcoal, sherds, fragments from amphorae, fragmentary wattle-and-daub, shells and bones from domestic animals (most numerous were the ox, followed by sheep, goats, pigs, horses, donkeys, dogs and chickens). The finds included fragments from amphorae from Chios, Heraclea Pontica (three of them with stamps that read: Αρίστιππος, Αρχέλας and ‘Όνασο Σώσις) and Mende dated to 400 – 375 BC, a red-figure skyphos of the 4th century BC, sherds from imported Greek black-gloss vessels, fragmentary Thracian hand- and wheel-made pottery (bowls, dishes, pots, kraters and dolia). The pits probably belonged to a sanctuary.