Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory Places 4th on NASA List

11/05/2005

Kokino Observatory in Macedonia, discovered two and a half years ago, has placed fourth on the NASA list rating old observatories. Explorations aimed at learning more about the observatory resume next month.

By Marija Lazarova for Southeast European Times in Skopje -- 11/05/05

Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory is more than 3,800 years old. NASA has ranked it the fourth oldest in the world. [File]

Macedonia's Megalithic-era Kokino Observatory is located 1,030m above sea level on the Tativec Kamen Summit near Kumanovo. Archaeological and astronomical analyses have shown that the observatory is more than 3,800 years old. According to NASA, which earlier this year released a list ranking observatories by age, it is the fourth oldest in the world, after Abu Simbel in Egypt, Stonehenge in Britain and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

"Kokino has incredible astronomical preciseness and has a central observation post and accessory observation posts," says physicist Gjore Cenev, the head of Macedonia's Youth Cultural Centre Planetarium, who has been performing a detailed analysis of the site. "The observatory defines the four main positions of the Moon and three main positions of the Sun during a year, the autumnal and vernal equinox and winter and summer solstice." One specially positioned marker shows that the observatory was also used to follow the movement of the star cluster Pleiades.

According to Cenev, the observatory was designed by the end of the Bronze Age and suggests a highly developed civilisation. "Ancient people made their calendar with precision, with many markers and cuts in the rock and on some places on the observatory. The observatory also helped them to determine the time for harvest and other dates," he says.

Archeologist Jovica Stankovksi discovered Kokino two and a half years ago. "We found a lot of ceramic items on the site but they were dated to a later period," he says. "This leads to a conclusion that another civilisation came to the site, destroyed the civilisation that had developed the observatory and built a settlement next to it," Stankovski says.

Exploration of the site is to resume next month, and the discovery of more details on the civilisation that built and used Kokino is expected. The Dutch Foundation has provided 4,000 euros for a catalogue about the site.

"The ministry of culture will also participate in the catalogue preparation with 500 euros," Cenev said. "This ultimately confirms that there is cultural heritage in Macedonia that should be explored." Archaeologists and astronomers assume there are three or four more such observatories in this region.