ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS IN APOLLONIA (Krastina Panaiotova – kpanayotova@abv.bg) A quarry was discovered in the western part of the site. Limestone ashlars that were used in the necropolis were cut out there. After the exploitation of the quarry stopped, the area became part of the necropolis. Eleven graves of the 4th – beginning of the 3rd centuries BC were explored. One burial was a cremation and the ashes were placed in an urn, while the rest burials were inhumations. The graves were pits without covering or covered with stone slabs and ashlars, some of them surrounded with stones and ashlars. The deceased lay supine, either directly in the burial pits or in wooden coffins. Most deceased were buried with heads directed to the east, while one is directed to the south. The grave goods included two bronze pins, a bronze fibula, a bronze finger-ring, a glass bead, red-figure lekythoi, a red-figure pyxis, hydriai, a jug, a black-gloss amphoriskos, a kylix, a kantharos, a small dish, pots, a black-gloss lamp, terracotta figurines, two bronze mirrors, three strigils, a pair of iron scissors and knuckle bones. Piles of fragmentary pottery and amphorae, related to memorial rituals, were discovered between the graves and above them. Seven ritual hearths were explored. They contained pots, black-gloss ichthyai, terracotta grills for fish, red-figure lekanai and askoi, dishes, cups and a strigil. Six limestone and marble inscribed stelae with the names of the deceased were found. A wall built in rubble masonry and two deposits containing fragmentary pottery were discovered. They were related to a building and two kilns that were explored nearby. An anonymous Byzantine coin minted in 1060 – 1065 was found.