Credited to North Macedonia. The astronomical reading of the site comes from the archaeo-astronomical analysis put forward in North Macedonia's own UNESCO Tentative List submission; UNESCO notes that the content of such submissions is the sole responsibility of the state party. Kokino is one of several prehistoric sites worldwide interpreted as observatories and is not claimed to be the first.
How it began
The site stands on Tatichev Kamen, a rocky hill 1,013 meters high near the village of Kokino, about 19 kilometers northeast of Kumanovo in present-day North Macedonia. According to the country's UNESCO Tentative List submission, the complex was formed about 3,900 years ago by Bronze Age people. Pottery found there dates from the Early Bronze Age, the 19th to 17th century BCE, with Late Bronze Age material most common. The makers are not known by name.
How it works
The hill is an extinct volcano whose andesite rock cracks into nearly cubic blocks that could be shaped easily. On two platforms 19 meters apart in height, the builders cut notches, called marker cuttings, into the rocks of the eastern horizon. Seen from a central observing spot, three cuttings mark sunrise at the summer solstice, the equinoxes and the winter solstice. Others mark where the full Moon rises at its largest and smallest declination in winter and summer. Four stone seats on the lower platform face the upper one.
What changed first
The submission states that making a calendar was one of the main functions of the site. Two cuttings measured the length of lunar months and supported a 19-year cycle in which twelve years had 12 lunar months and seven years had 13. For farmers and herders this dated the start and end of the working seasons. A separate cutting let a ray of the rising Sun fall on one of the stone seats in midsummer, at the end of harvest, during a ritual.
What lasted
Finds show occupation for at least 1,200 years, from the 19th to the 7th century BCE, and include a mold for casting bronze axes. The observatory itself covers about half a hectare within an archaeological site of about 30 hectares. The submission says that NASA listed Kokino in its 2005 Timeless Knowledge project alongside sites such as Stonehenge, Abu Simbel, Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu.
Where it stands today
Archaeological investigation began in 2001. The site was placed under temporary protection in November 2008, and North Macedonia submitted it to the UNESCO Tentative List on January 30, 2009, where it remains. The most important finds are shown at the museum in Kumanovo. Only a small part of the wider site has been excavated.
