A 4,300-year-old silver goblet unearthed in occupied Palestine may bear the earliest known artistic depiction of the origin of the Universe, according to a new study.
The iconic Ain Samiya cup was found at an ancient grave site in the Judean Hill in 1970 and named after the Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank near where it was found.
It was dated to the Intermediate Bronze Age of 2650–1950BC, when the region was populated by several nomadic communities.
The cup, three inches tall, bears artistic engravings of what appears to be a chimeric half-human, half-animal figure hol