Persia, a Museum of Materials · Hall 1 · Painted Clay

Spin the goblet of the Burnt City

About five thousand years ago, a potter in the Burnt City painted a wild goat five times around a clay goblet. Turn it slowly and you see five pictures. Make it move and the goat leaps. Some archaeologists call it the oldest animation we know.

Drag to turn the goblet

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Pictures a second

The five pictures, unrolled

Is it really animation?

The five goats are painted in a row around the goblet. Many people read them as one goat in five moments: coming up to a tree, leaping and reaching its leaves. Some archaeologists call it the oldest known animation; others see a repeated pattern. Either way, turning the goblet shows the trick film still uses: pictures that change a little, shown one after another.

The Burnt City

Shahr-e Sukhteh, in Sistan in south-east Iran, was one of the largest Bronze Age cities on the Iranian plateau. UNESCO dates it from about 3200 to 1800 BC; recent radiocarbon dates place it between about 3550 and 2300 BC. Its name, the Burnt City, fits what archaeologists found: parts of it burned more than once. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014.

The golden eye

In 2006 archaeologists found the oldest known artificial eye in a grave at the site: a hemisphere about 2.5 to 3 cm across, probably bitumen paste covered with a thin layer of gold, with an iris and lines like rays. It belonged to a woman about 1.8 m tall who died between 2900 and 2800 BC, and marks in her eye socket show she wore it in life.

Episode 1 of 12

Still alive today

Every cartoon and every GIF on your phone runs on the trick people see when they spin the goblet: pictures that change a little, shown quickly one after another.

Questions people ask

Where is the goblet now?

In the National Museum of Iran in Tehran.

How old is it?

About 5,000 years. It is dated between about 3200 and 2800 BC, the city’s early period; dates for early pottery come with a margin of error.

How big is it?

About 10 cm tall and 8 cm across: small enough to hold in one hand.

Is it the first animation in the world?

It is often called that. The five pictures form a sequence, but we cannot know whether its maker meant the goblet to be spun. It is among the earliest known images that show one movement in steps.

How does animation work?

Show pictures that change a little, quickly one after another. From about 10 to 12 a second the eye starts to see one moving image instead of separate pictures; film uses 24 a second. Lab 001, Pixel & Sound, shows how a screen does it.

Continue your visit

In the next episode…

Around 1250 BC, an Elamite king raises a ziggurat faced with baked brick at Chogha Zanbil, thousands of its bricks inscribed; but that layer is still under the tarp, and the dig goes on.
Hall 2 · Brick & Bitumen · Elam · in a coming update
Beyond the tarp, a king called “king of Anshan”, after an old Elamite city, is laying out a garden on the plain of Pasargadae, and an Old Iranian word for a walled place is about to set off on a road that ends in “paradise”.
Hall 3 · White Stone & Water · Pasargadae →

Next hallHall 2 · Brick & Bitumen · ElamIn a coming update

Next openHall 3 · White Stone & Water · Plan a paradiseEnter the hall →The museumThe entrance · all twelve halls, oldest firstBack to the entrance →

Sources: Wikipedia, “Shahr-e Sukhteh”; UNESCO World Heritage List, “Shahr-i Sokhta” (2014); Cardiff University SHARE eJournal, “Golden-eye and the Burnt City” (2019).

Goblet and drawings: a reconstruction by Bridge Labs after the original in the National Museum of Iran.