A 5,200-year-old bowl in Iran’s Burnt City , Sistan-Baluchestan Province ,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.
The remarkable piece of pottery was unearthed from a burial site ,but it was until recently that archaeologists noticed the special relationship between the images are an animation story. That discovery was made by Iranian archaeologist Dr. Mansur Sadjadi. The Burnt City is 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.
" Five frames or images show a goat ,leaping toward a palm tree,feeds from the tree leaves and then comes down on the earth surface.If you give the bowl a spin ,you will find out the animation sequence of the pictures", said Mr. S'adat, an Iranian archaeologist in Sistan-Baluchestan Provice, where the animation bowl unearthed years ago.
" We had 1500- minute-long of animation production in the form of 8 TV series,and 10 short films.We have now turned ourselves into a top center for animation production in Iran",said Mr. Mazloum , a TV Producer and Director in Sistan-Baluchestan Province.
"We use our legendary heroes for animation production to tell their moral stories to our kids", said Mr. Farshad, a TV Producer in Iran.
