By some accounts, the history of animation stretches back to the turn of the 20th century. However, the art finds its roots in antiquity. A 5,200-year-old vase 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 it a spin, one would see a goat leaping to snatch leaves from a tree.