New evidence suggests that humans developed complex cosmological concepts about a thousand years earlier than previously thought
The engravings on a silver cup dating back about 4,300 years, found on the west bank of the Jordan River, appear to depict the creation of the universe from primordial chaos, making it the oldest known visual representation of the creation myth.
"I think this formation is ingenious," said geoarchaeologist Eberhard Zanger of the Luwian Foundation in Switzerland.
"In just a few lines, it tells an astonishingly complex story."
The cup, which is about 8 centimeters tall, was found 55 years ago at the site of Ein Samia, inside an ancient tomb located a few kilometers northeast of Ramallah, on the western edge of the Fertile Crescent, the region where early civilizations flourished.
The cup appears to depict two main scenes. In the first, a huge snake rises up, gazing at a mythical hybrid creature with a human torso and animal legs, standing atop a small, flower-like circle. In the second scene, a snake lies on the ground beneath a larger, circular flower with a smiling face, seemingly being held by two human figures, though one of them is no longer visible due to the cup's damage.
In the 1970s, archaeologists theorized that these two scenes were inspired by Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth in which the primordial entity Tiamat is defeated by the god Marduk, who then forms heaven and earth from it. However, Tsanger points out weaknesses in this interpretation, not only because the battle scene is absent, but also because the cup was made nearly a thousand years before Enuma Elish was written down. Alternative interpretations have been proposed, including that the cup symbolizes the cycle of the new year and the passing of the old.
However, Tsanger and his colleagues believe that the initial interpretation is closer to the truth, while emphasizing that the scenes do indeed express the creation of the world, but represent a narrative much older than "Enuma Elish".
According to the team's study published in the journal *Ex Oriente Lux*, the first scene depicts a state of chaos, where the hybrid being represents a weak deity still attached to the animal world, while the small flower embodies a helpless sun, and above all, the serpent of chaos reigns supreme. In the second scene, order is peacefully restored; the deities separate from the animals to appear in powerful human form, and the sun is raised in a "celestial vessel," signifying the separation of heaven and earth, while the serpent of chaos is thrown to the ground.
The researcher points to the discovery of cuneiform texts dating back to the same period in other areas of the Fertile Crescent, describing the separation of heaven from earth, indicating that the inhabitants of that region had already developed conceptions of the origin of the universe.
Tsanger concluded by saying,
"But what is most amazing about this cup is that it gives us a glimpse into how they imagined the process of creation."
