We are all familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs and that they where some form of communication but animation sequences such as this combat/wrestling diagram where also created by the Egyptians.
This piece is approximately four thousand years old.

Although its depicted fairly clearly i feel that the sequences in which the actions are occurring may not make much sense if they where shown as animation like the jug example. This is due to the white and black characters switching places which occurs in some parts of the pictures.