Home » Features

Oldest Animation Discovered In Iran

Wednesday, March 12, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

Long considered a modern invention, animation has apparently been lying about its age. A 5,200-year-old bowl found in Iran’s Burnt City in the 1970s features a series of five images that researchers have only recently identified as being sequential, much like those in a zoetrope. Giving the bowl a spin, one would see a goat leaping to snatch leaves from a tree, as seen in the video clip below.

The remarkable piece of pottery was unearthed from a burial site by Italian archaeologists, who hadn’t noticed the special relationship between the images that adorned the circumference. That discovery was made years later by Iranian archaeologist Dr. Mansur Sadjadi, who was later hired to direct the excavation of The Burnt City, located 57 kilometers from the city of Zabol in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan.

While no one questions the early instance of animation, researchers have been at odds over the significance of the earthenware bowl’s artwork. It was originally thought to depict the goat eating from the Assyrian Tree of Life, but archaeologists now assert that it predates the Assyrian civilization by a thousand years.

Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization (CHTHO) and director Mohsen Ramezani have created an 11-minute documentary on the discovery. A ceremony celebrating the film’s completion was held on Sunday in Iran.

Leaping Goat - World's oldest animation

Reader Comments

  • Janet Martin Dobler :
    Thursday, March 13, 2008

    I think this might be the Nebekineazer\\\\\\\'s kingdom spoken of by Daniel.

  • Rich Calkins :
    Thursday, March 13, 2008

    I think you mean Nebuchadnezzar II, son of Nabopolassar who ruled Babylon from 605–562 BC and constructed the Ishtar Gate. This bowl would be about 2,500 years older.

  • Amjad Esfahani :
    Friday, March 14, 2008

    w00t!! My ancestors invented animation! So why does Iranian animation suck so bad nowadays?

  • RobZalete : fubartist :
    Saturday, March 15, 2008

    Don\\\\\\\'t you need some sort of shutter device to frame the action? If you spun the whole thing, it would just be a bbbbbbbbbllllllllllllllllllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrr...
    And why don\\\\\\\'t the trees move?
    I watched it for a couple of minutes. Since I avoid animated logos like Bush, that has to be worth something. Is it copy-protected yet?

  • kiumars :
    Saturday, March 15, 2008

    LOL .. some people are so jealous who don’t even want to acknowledge that we had the most advanced civilisation 5 to 6 thousands years ago! But we had it and we have tangible evidences to prove it unlike the Moses story! All we need to find now is something to say that the earth was promised to us by God and we are the “chosen people”!

  • Bob : Big Boss Man : Of One
    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    This story is a fraud. The background never changes as it would if it were compiled by photographing the bowl. The lines, trees, and texture of the bowl should all change as the bowl is rotated to be photographed and they do not. It can not possibly what it is claimed to be. It is a fraud.

  • zomg :
    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    kiumars, you state you had the most advanced civilization 5000 years ago and I\'ll even help you and add one; your people also invented the numeric system that is standard today virtually worldwide. But since Islam was founded in the 6th century CE (about 1,400 years ago...thanks arabic numbers!) you guys haven\'t only NOT moved forward but have remained thoroughly stagnant or even regressed. So, some achievement 5000 years ago is no cause for celebrating how \'advanced\' you all are. You WERE advanced and the world has long since passed you by. Get over the fanaticism and maybe arab nations will have a chance to catch up, but as long as you are only able to cite accomplishments of your people that are thousands of years old as a measure of your current cultural achievements...well you don\'t have a lot to brag about then, do you?

    It\'s not jealousy that makes people laugh...it\'s that you can\'t cite any accomplishment for the last millennium (actually longer!). So yes, it\'s pretty funny.

    p.s. The moses story is bullshit too (though they got away with it sadly). The Bible is about as much evidence of real history or divine providence as a hand scrawled note from a lunatic claiming the same thing. It\'s just a shame the world has bought into the lies.

  • zomg :
    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    p.s. The weird / after every apostrophe is something this message board did, not I. (just adding that in because I find that when people try to argue then look for something silly like \"you spelled atrocity wrong so you had nothing valid to say haha\" and if you or anyone else wishes to debate me, then at least make it about the content and not some stupid \"you have a / between every apostrophe, what an idiot!\" To nip it in the bud, I know it shouldn\'t be there.

    Whoever is the site admin- you might want to fix that.

  • David : Drcube2000@yahoo.com :
    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    You used the wrong slash. You obviously have nothing of value to say!!!!!!

  • Cátia Santos : Archaeologist :
    Sunday, March 16, 2008

    Well, I think you have to relativize the information provided here. You cannot think this is a \"real\" animation... the importan here is the notion of movement, the observation and the attempt to depict that observation. Paleolithic rock arte also tried to depict it, there are some zoomorphs which appear to have two or three heads, depicting movement of the head... that can be seen in Foz Côa, Portugal.

  • Evan Elliott : Archaeologist :
    Monday, March 17, 2008

    Can you guys just give it a break with the \"most advanced civilization\" stuff? Take a clue from those of us who study these things for a living. We no long use advanced vs primitive nor civilization. Those are 19th and early 20th century concepts. Catch up.

  • Cátia Santos : Archaeologist : catia.neves.santos@gmail.com
    Monday, March 17, 2008

    I agree with Evan.... we have cultural differences and should be able to live with them, not confronting to see who\'s \"wining\". Every culture, every civilization had it\'s peak and downfall and we should accept evolution as a sequence of several movements, relative movements.

  • Cornelia : writer :
    Friday, March 21, 2008

    This is just incredible. So Exciting.

  • Timo :
    Saturday, March 22, 2008

    The \"animation\" is a modern thing. The actual bowl is more like a comic strip, not meant for actual animated viewing, but demonstrating an understanding of sequential motion. See http://www.emaki.net/blog/2006/02/burnt-city-animation-vl.html for the actual bowl. I suspect whoever made up the animation had an agenda in mind.

  • keyvan : commercial : SSK
    Friday, April 04, 2008

    we have also new comedy animation under name of Mr.Ahmadi nejad

  • jake : ure mum : =]
    Monday, April 21, 2008

    haha paki animation lol

  • Zongu :
    Wednesday, April 23, 2008

    So the \'Iranians\' invented one thing - in 5000 years.

  • David : Professional potter : MRP
    Saturday, May 03, 2008

    This posting has inspired me to make pottery that has animation on the inside with \"shutter\" slots cut into the wall. That\'s my comment... which is far more intelligent than anything zomg can come up with.

    I\'m so tired of hearing all these loud-mouthed, hyper-opinionated, superiority-complexed atheistic bigots spouting out the vomit they absorbed in college.

    Try contributing to the world for a change.

    There is much to be learned from history, science and religion. So stop shoving YOUR beliefs down our throats.

Submit Your Comments

Name, Job Title and Company are optional.

No HTML or javascript code is allowed in any of the comment fields.

Your Name:
Job Title:
Company:
Comments:
Spam Verification:

Enter the letters you see above into the box below: