By Stephen Beech

A 4,200-year-old silver goblet is engraved with the world’s earliest image of the cosmos , according to new research.

The drinking vessel, discovered in 1970 at the spring of ˁAin Samiya near Kafr Malik in the West Bank, Palestine, has now been identified as the world’s earliest known depiction of the universe.

It predates the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish by more than a thousand years, say scientists.

A new study, published in the JEOL – Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society “Ex Oriente Lux”, sheds fresh light on one of the most enigmatic artifacts of the Bronze Age.

Measuring just eight centimeters (3.1 inches) in height, the silver goblet bears two repoussé-hammered relief scenes filled with snakes, chimeras, deities, and celestial symbols.

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