ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS NEAR THE VILLAGE OF OSIKOVITSA (Tatyana Borisova – tatqna_borisova@abv.bg, Mihaela Zaneva) The explorations around St. Mary Church of the 14th century continued. It was found that the semicircular wall with a pit from its northern side, discovered to the northwest of the northwestern outer corner of the church, is not continuing to the north. A ritual pile of uneven stones was explored. Charcoal, carbonized wheat and almonds, and sherds were discovered between and under the stones of the pile. A layer of fallen fragmentary plaster and frescoes and iron nails was documented in trenches Nos. 7 and 10. A pile of sherds from a Thracian storage vessel with biconic shape was explored in trench No. 10. A spindle whorl and a stone object, probably a whetstone, were found among the sherds in trench No. 13. The Thracian pottery discovered during the excavations dated to the 8th – 7th and 5th – 1st centuries BC. A structure with square layout and foundations built of roughly cut stones bonded with mud was partly explored in trench No. 18. The finds included a number of iron nails, a fragment of an iron knife and a ceramic tobacco pipe. The structure was probably related to the church and fallen frescoes were discovered to the north of it.