Sunday 20 September 2020

Jumping goat

This is a very very interesting vessel from Shahr-i Sokhta, Iran. Late 3rd Mill. BC...

Here again we see the "Goat of rain" next to the "Tree of life". Basically just an Ibex goat eating green shoots from a green plant. Which has been revived by the first rain which arrives to this part of Iran during Ibex (Bezoar) goat mating season.  Which begins in late Oct early Nov

Yawn...Not the goat of rain again...

As much as this is really amazing, this is not why this vessel is so interesting. The five pictures on the side of the vessel show a goat stepping toward a tree, climbing it up, eating the leaves and coming down...

This series of pictures is one of earliest examples of an artist's attempting to show motion through animation. Now if you were able to spin the vessel around (fastish) this is what you would see. 


Seriously cool, right?

You can read more about the "Goat of rain" in Iran in my post "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" and "Maltese cross seal from Elam". You can find more articles about animal solar year calendar markers here.

4 comments:

  1. "Seriously cool"

    Yes, indeed it is! Sharing on Facebook

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  2. This made my morning because my FB friends ask me why I post series of the same photos, like birds. Well because I don't know how to post videos, I just take a series of pics, and if the viewer is using a PC the can go click the photos and it looks like a movie.

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  3. If they were using a potter's wheel of any kind then there you have the spinning motion for the animation!

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