1+ week, 6+ day ago (469+ words) Published Nov 17, 2025 1:40 PM EST For decades, many scholars contended that the cup shows an early variant on the Enuma Elish myth. Central to the ancient Babylonian religion, the tale recounts the god Marduk's battle with the sea goddess of chaos, Tiamat. After defeating her, Marduk then uses her body to build the cosmos, Earth, and humans." Instead of a cosmological birth through bloody combat, they argue the "Ain Samiya goblet tale begins with an era of chaos and ends with order. The first scene doesn't show a proto-Marduk readying for battle, but the birth of an unknown sun deity. Meanwhile, the cup's final section celebrates the god's successful ordering of the universe. "The artist has effectively depicted the passage of time through a series of simple stylistic choices," the study's authors wrote. "For example, on the left, the sun appears…...