The famed ˁAin Samiya silver cup (found 1970; c. 3.1 in; Intermediate Bronze Age) has been reinterpreted by researchers from the University of Zurich and the University of Toronto. Rather than depicting the violent Marduk–Tiamat struggle of the Enuma Elish, the cup may narrate the peaceful birth and growth of a sun deity and the shift from chaos to order. The study highlights stylistic shifts — the sun’s changing size, evolving costume details, and a subdued serpent — as evidence of a time-lapse narrative. Scholars welcome the fresh reading but debate continues about alternative myths and meanings.
4,000-Year-Old Silver Goblet May Show a Peaceful Creation, Not a Cosmic Battle
The famed ˁAin Samiya silver cup (found 1970; c. 3.1 in; Intermediate Bronze Age) has been reinterpreted by researchers from the University of Zurich and the University of Toronto. Rather than depicting the violent Marduk–Tiamat struggle of the Enuma Elish, the cup may narrate the peaceful birth and growth of a sun deity and the shift from chaos to order. The study highlights stylistic shifts — the sun’s changing size, evolving costume details, and a subdued serpent — as evidence of a time-lapse narrative. Scholars welcome the fresh reading but debate continues about alternative myths and meanings.
04:12 AM, 11/18/2025Culture
Reinterpreting the ˁAin Samiya Cup: From Cosmic Combat to Quiet Creation
An international team of archaeologists has reexamined the famous ˁAin Samiya silver cup and proposes a new reading of its engraved scenes. The 3.1-inch goblet, recovered from a 1970 burial in the Judean Hills and dated to the Intermediate Bronze Age (c. 2650–1950 BCE), has long been linked by some scholars to an early version of the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The new study, published in the Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society "Ex Oriente Lux," argues the images instead depict a peaceful transition from chaos to order — possibly one of the earliest visual cosmologies.
What the Cup Shows
Although the cup is damaged, researchers reconstructed most of its decoration. The first register appears to show a hybrid human–animal figure holding plants with a rosette or celestial emblem between its legs; comparative art suggests the figure’s legs are actually two bulls emerging from a single torso. A large serpent stands beside this figure. In a later scene, two human figures hold the tips of a crescent that contains a face set within a sun, while the serpent lies subdued beneath the crescent.
A New Interpretation
Previous readings associated the imagery with the violent Enuma Elish myth, in which the god Marduk defeats the sea goddess Tiamat and forms the world from her body. But critics point out that the cup shows no explicit combat and predates the clear adoption of the Enuma Elish tradition by roughly a millennium. The Zurich–Toronto team suggests the sequence instead traces the birth and growth of a sun deity and the gradual establishment of cosmic order: the sun appears small on the left and larger and radiant on the right, figures gain more elaborate dress and accessories, and the serpent becomes diminished.
"The artist has effectively depicted the passage of time through a series of simple stylistic choices," the authors write, noting changes in scale, costume, and posture as evidence of temporal progression.
Debate and Significance
The authors bolster their case by pointing to parallels in other ancient Near Eastern art — crescent-shaped boats carrying celestial objects and bull-human hybrids appear across Egypt, Anatolia and Mesopotamia. Yet not all specialists are persuaded: Princeton scholar Mark Smith has suggested the scenes could reference other Near Eastern myths (for example, the Baal cycle) or might not be a creation myth at all. Even so, experts agree the ˁAin Samiya cup is a rare and remarkable artifact from an era with limited material remains. The researchers conclude the goblet’s funerary context likely aimed to connect the deceased’s soul with the sun’s journey to the heavens.