EXPLORATIONS OF A PIT SANCTUARY NEAR THE VILLAGE OF KRASTINA (Tsonya Drazheva – archeo@burgasmuseums.bg) The Thracian sanctuary functioned from the end of the 2nd to the mid 1st millennia BC. A number of archaeological structures were discovered, six ritual pits with different shapes (beehive, cylindrical, bell-like) among them. The finds from the pits testify that their ritual filling happened from the end of the 2nd millennium BC to the 4th century BC. Fragmentary amphorae from Chios, Lesbos, Thasos and Mende, and roughly made pottery with thick walls (urns, small cups, and jugs) were discovered, alongside fragments of escharai placed on the bottoms of the pits. Terracotta magic objects (large buttons, small dice, knucklebones, small prisms) and cooked animal bones were also found on the bottoms of the pits. A stone knife or bronze ring was usually placed in the upper part of the pits. After the restoration of the finds, new elements of the rituals accompanying the filling of the pits were specified: fragments of one and the same vessels (amphorae, jugs, and urns) were placed inside different pits. Three ritual platforms located in the areas of highest concentration of pits (whose total number reached 21) were discovered. Sherds, animal bones, flint objects, and other finds, related to the rituals of votive deposits and used for filling the pits, were discovered on the round platforms, which were fired due to the strong burning. The exploration results make possible to outline two zones within the pit sanctuary: the beginning of its functioning is situated in the northeastern part where the earliest pits with material of the end of the 2nd millennium BC were discovered, while the central part contains the highest concentration of ritual constructions dated to the end of the 5th – 4th centuries BC.