The Goat and the Tree

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Click on image to see Animation of Goat - determined to be the oldest known animation sequence - painted on an ancient Iranian earthenware bowl discovered in a grave at the 5200-year-old Burnt City.

The image is of a goat jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree.

From The Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies:

The image is a simple depiction of a tree and wild-goat (Capra aegagrus) also known as 'Persian desert Ibex', and since it is an indigenous animal to the region, it would naturally appear in the iconography of the Burnt City.

The wild goat motif can be seen on Iranian pottery dating back to the 4th millennium BCE, as well as jewellery pieces especially among Cassite tribes of ancient Luristan. However, the oldest wild goat representation in Iran was discovered in Negaran Valley in Sardast region, 37 kilometers from Nahok village near Saravan back in 1999. The engraved painting of wild goat is part of an important collection of lithoglyphs dating back to 8000 BCE.

However, wild goat representation with a tree is associated with Murkum, a mother goddess who was worshipped by all the Indo-Iranian women of the Haramosh valley in modern Pakistan, which culturally had closer ties with Indus and subsequently the Burnt City civilisations, than Mesopotamia, which could had influenced the ancient potter who made this unique piece.

The Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization authorities (Iran) are insisting that it a depiction of the 'Assyrian Tree of Life’ even though it was created 1000 years before the Assyrian civilization. That is one way that goddess related imagery goes unrecognized or is lost.