'Ain Samiya Goblet

The chalice from Ain Samia - flat rendering

The 'Ain Samiya Goblet is a silver cup from the

Middle Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

I (2300-2000 BC), found in a tomb at Ain Samiya near modern

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ar, رام الله, , God's Height) is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank that serves as the ''de facto'' administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusale ...

. It was discovered in 1970 at Khirbet el-'Aqibat, located just before Ein Samiya on the road to

Kafr Malik Kafr Malik ( ar, كفر مالك) is a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, located 17 kilometers Northeast of Ramallah in the northern West Bank. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the town h ...

. An extensive cemetery had been previously known to cover three adjacent hills: Khirbet el-'Aqibat, Khirbet Samiya and Dhahr el-Mirz, the latter of which had been excavated in the 1960s by Paul W. Lapp, the Director of the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem. It depicts a double-headed god with an animal body planting crops and the dead body of a serpent, parts of whom are being held by two male figures. The scenes are purported to depict a proto version of the

Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c. ...

n creation epic, the Enuma Elish and the defeat of Tiamat by the Babylonian patron deity,

Marduk Marduk (Cuneiform: dAMAR.UTU; Sumerian: ''amar utu.k'' "calf of the sun; solar calf"; ) was a god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon. When Babylon became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of ...

. The goblet demonstrates clear influences from Mesopotamia on Proto-Canaanite culture and shares other parallels with contemporary depictions like the Khafaje plaque during

Babylonian captivity The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their defeat ...

.Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

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