Oldest door in the world
Stone Age door unearthed by archaeologists in Zurich
Archaeologists have found a "fantastically preserved" 5100-year-old door in the Swiss city of Zurich.
The door could have been made in the year 3063 BC, chief archaeologist Niels Bleicher said.
The find is one of the oldest doors ever found in Europe and remarkable "because of the way the planks were held together", Mr Bleicher said.
The find was made at a dig preceding the construction of an underground car park for Zurich's opera house.
The door, which is 153cm (5ft) high and 88cm wide, was among the traces of at least five Neolithic villages believed to have existed at the site.
It is made of poplar wood and "solid and elegant" with well-preserved hinges, Mr Bleicher said.
The door would have been part of a wooden stilt house designed to keep out the cold winds blowing across Lake Zurich, the archaeologist added.
"It's a clever design that even looks good," he said.
The archaeologists plan to exhibit the door once it has been carefully removed from the ground and soaked in a special solution to prevent it from rotting.
Here are the World’s Oldest Doors….
Asides from laughter, the door is a universal language. It comes in all shapes, forms, and sizes and is always unique to the house. This piece explores doors made hundreds of years ago that are still in use.
In the past, people of ancient cultures, such as the Egyptians and the Sumerians, used to believe that doors symbolise the entrance to the afterlife. For that particular reason, many doors were decorated with such scenes. It is therefore not at all surprising that most of the doors preserved to this day once adorned places of worship. The earliest reports of the existence of doors come from ancient Egypt. And in many tombs, there are still preserved pictures of people crossing the doorway to the afterlife.
See for yourself some fascinating pieces of pure creativity, sophistication, style, and necessity.
Itakarado Doors:
Year: 693 AD
Found in: Palaces, homes, and temples
Materials: Cypress wood
Design Overview: Made of plain cypress wood and functioned as a typical door.
Medieval Portcullis:
Year: 476 / c. 1100 AD
Found in: Castles
Materials: Wood, metal, or a combination o
In the past, people of ancient cultures, such as the Egyptians and the Sumerians, used to believe that doors symbolised the entrance to the afterlife. For that particular reason, many doors were decorated with such scenes. It is therefore not at all surprising that most of the doors preserved to this day once adorned places of worship. The earliest reports of the existence of doors enter from ancient Egypt. And in many tombs there are still preserved pictures of people crossing the doorway to the afterlife. As you will see for yourself in what is to follow, the story of doors is truly fascinating.
According to historical sources, doors in distant past were constructed in the most simple ways. In places with warmer climate, such as Egypt, doors did not need frames. They were made of a whole piece of wood. In moist places, however, doors needed frames. Doors were just panels made of vertical boards held together by two or three horizontal ones. One of these vertical boards, or stiles, was the hanging stile. It had pivots – one on foremost and on the bottom, which in turn were inserted in sockets, located on the sill and lintel.
Source: Pixabay
#1 Neolithic wooden door
Count A door’s design seems utilitarian and universal: a wooden slab with a doorknob that moves on hinges. However, after a quick study of ancient and antique doors, it’s clear that this common object served many purposes throughout history. Various cultures have designed and innovated doors for spirituality, convenience and protection. Read the list below to open your eyes to the doors’ multi hyphenate nature. Year: 1600s photo source: Jacob Bodkin Photography The Dutch Colonial style came with Dutch immigrants who traveled to the American colonies. While the door itself isn’t ornate, a reflection of the Puritan religion that was common at the time, it still has interesting features. In particular, Dutch doors have a horizontal division that allows the top half of the door to be opened while the bottom remains stationary. The design permitted farmers to let light Preface
12 Oldest Doors in the World
12. Dutch Colonial Style Doors
Found in: Barns
Materials: Wood and hinges
Design Overview: Appears to be an average door, but has a horizontal division that allows the top half to open.Two middle hinges hold the door together in case the user wants to open the entire thing.Archaeology of Britain's Oldest Church Doors
Acknowledgements
1 Doors and ‘Dane-skins’
Historiography
Church doors with coverings of hide
2 Antiquarian study of hide-covered doors
The preoccupation with Danes and flaying
Early scientific attempts to identify the animal species of hides
False affirmation of the ‘Dane-skin’ legend
Laying the ‘Dane-skin’ myth to rest
Identifying the species of the hides by Ruairidh Macleod
3 Westminster Abbey: chapter house vestibule door
Location and setting
Form and construction of the door
The hide covering
Iron fittings
Later interventions with the door
4 A carpenter’s study of the Westminster Abbey door
by Peter Massey and Paul Reed
Brief description of the door
Introduction to Anglo-Saxon woodworking
How was the door made?
Making a sample replica of the door
Summary
5 St Botolph’s church, Hadstock, Essex
Location and setting
The legend of the ‘Dane-skin’
Antiquarian and modern stud