The emblem of the royal Argead dynasty and the ancient kingdom of Macedonia was an 8-ray star. Herodotus gives us the story how it became a symbol of the ancient Macedonians:

The story of the star

The golden star of Vergina is the 16-ray version of that symbol, that had 8 rays. That can be proved by the many findings on which we can see the 8-ray sun, like the findings of the French excavations in the kingdom of Vactriani, that was established by Alexander the Great and his successors. The same symbol was found on the cover of the golden larnaka that was in the tomb of Philippos II (father of Alexander the Great). The tomb was excavated in 1977 by professor M.Andronikos in the archaeological site of Vergina. That star, which, of course, is more impressive, since it is large and made of gold, has 16 rays. According to M.Andronikos it is the same symbol, with the 8 rays, but, it has 8 additional smaller rays (reflections), in order to emphasize the brightness of the star, since the 8 smaller rays do not touch the central circle of the symbol as the other 8 do. Of course, the "historians" of FYROM ought to know better than to present that symbol as an original national symbol !...

The 8-ray star, emblem of the ancient kingdom of Makedonia, is a very common symbol for ancient findings. In the photograph there is a small golden decorating disk, found in the antechamber of Philippos' tomb.
The 16-ray star as it was designed on the golden larnaka that contained Philippos' remains. That appearance of the 16-ray star is possibly the only appearance on ancient findings.

The abnormal use of the star of Vergina