In my search for traditional old doors I stumbled across a news story about the finding of a 5,000-year-old door. This wasn't exactly what I had in mind however it is quite an interesting story, which came to light a few years ago. Made from Poplar Wood, the door was found in good shape and clearly recognisable with hinges and a good solid planked design.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="400"]
5,000 Year old door, image © City of Zurich[/caption]
The discovery was made in October 2010 in Zurich, Switzerland during construction work to develop a new car park for the city's famous Opera House. An archaeologist called Neils Bleicher was head of the search and he reported that the door was "solid and elegant". It is amazing to see such a well-constructed door that has clearly passed the test of time. Also the door design is similar to many that we still manufacture today featuring thick vertical panels. The door was dated back to around 3,063 BC, which was based on the tree rings from the wood. To put this into perspective, this is around the time that Stonehenge was constructed in Wiltshire (estimated around 2600 BC). Around this time the climatic conditions were cold and severe meaning that people needed to construct solid homes with well made doors. While there have been discoveries of foundations for stilt houses around the same period, it is fairly unusual to discover such an old door, but this one had been preserved in an area of lakes. It tells us a lot about the capabilities and likely tools from this period.
At Doorsan we have a wide selection of modern and traditional doors. We specialise in doors that are made to last when treated correctly and we pride ourselves on the durable nature of our doors, however we cannot guarantee that our doors will last 5,000 years!
