After more than fifty years of speculation about the meaning of a Middle Bronze Age silver cup from Ain Samiya, a new study now offers a compelling interpretation. The small silver goblet – only eight centimeters high and decorated with depictions of snakes, chimeras, gods, and celestial bodies – was discovered in 1970 in the Judean Mountains (West Bank). Its significance has remained enigmatic until now.
In the new study, Eberhard Zangger, Daniel Sarlo, and Fabienne Haas Dantes interpret the scenes as one of the earliest known cosmological representations. The central motif shows a “celestial boat” carried by two deities – an ancient Near Eastern symbol for the transport of the sun and moon across the sky. Contrary to earlier assumptions, the reliefs do not portray a divine battle but rather a peaceful act of creation: the sun rises, dispels chaos, and renews the world. The depiction predates the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish by more than a millennium. The cup was probably made in northern Syria around 2300 BCE and buried in a tomb in the southern Levant around 2200 BCE.
A newly identified object with similar symbolism, the so-called Lidar Höyük prism, further supports this interpretation. The Ain Samiya cup could therefore be considered the world’s earliest known cosmological work of art.
“This object connects Mesopotamian myths, Levantine burial rites, and ancient Egyptian sun cults,” explains Daniel Sarlo, co-author of the study.
Publications:
Zangger, Eberhard, Daniel Sarlo and Fabienne Haas Dantes. 2025. “The Earliest Cosmological Depictions: Reconsidering the Imagery on the ʿAin Samiya Goblet,” in JEOL – Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society “Ex Oriente Lux,” 49: 49–84. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17594730.
Zangger, Eberhard. 2025. “Creation Myths and Cosmological Concepts in the Ancient Near East: From Uruk via Hattusa to Athens.” In Megalithic Monuments and Cult Practices – Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium Blagoevgrad, 10–14 October 2024, edited by Dimitriya Spasova, vol. 2. Neofit Rilski University Press. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17598383.
Zangger, Eberhard, Sarlo, Daniel and Fabienne Haas Dantes. 2025. “Lifting the Sky: The Cosmic Program on the ˁAin Samiya Goblet,” in The Ancient Near East Today 13.11. Accessed at: https://anetoday.org/ain-samiya-goblet/.