CULTURAL HERITAGE: - Macedonian Information Centre

1 - Jovica StankovSki, Gjore Cenev
100 meters squared about 1,000 kilograms of pottery from the Bronze
Age were excavated, and what is particularly interesting, about twenty
manual mills for wheat were excavated from this place as well. So, we
can be quite sure when we say that on this site some rituals connected
with the harvesting day used to be performed.
KOKINO AS AN ANCIENT OBSERVATORY
The Kokino Megalith Observatory is located on two platforms
and each has its characteristic contents. The length of the Observatory
is about 90 meters, and the width about 15 meters (Fig. 15).
The thrones are the most impressive content that is spotted on the
location at first sight. As we already said, they are made in such a way as to
be turned to the north-south direction, so the person sitting on the throne
is oriented towards the east and towards the eastern horizon. This is why
the archeologists came to the idea that this was the place from where the
celestial bodies rising on the horizon were observed. However, astronomic
measurements and analyses demonstrated that these thrones are a sacred
and ritual place and are not connected with astronomic observations.
In order to give an answer to the question why this place is an ancient
observatory, we must recall to the basic characteristics of the movements
of the Sun and the Moon. In the course of a calendar year, the Sun and
the full Moon rise on different places on the horizon. In this, there are
so-called ultimate points of the rising on the horizon. This means that
in winter, when the day is the shortest, or on the winter solstice (22
December) the Sun rises in the most south on the horizon. Moreover, it
goes to the north every day and on vernal equinox (21 March) the Sun
Fig.15