We rarely stop to think about how our everyday objects may become archaeological finds in the future. Doors, for example, are important parts of buildings and therefore provide some evidence about life in the past. The oldest door in the UK is over 900 years old and is surrounded by a legend that its surface was covered in human skin.
The oak plank consists of 5 main boards, connected by iron bars and wooden beams, and is about two meters high and 1.2 meters wide. It turns out that the door belongs to Westminster Abbey, one of the most famous churches in England.
Therefore, in the 19th century, people first noticed strange stripes and pieces of leather on the surface of the door. Since then, rumors have spread, leading to legend that the skin belonged to a man who was caught stealing or sabotaging inside the church. However, recent analyzes have shown that the hide actually belonged to a bovine rather than a human.
It turns out that many wooden artifacts were covered with leather to preserve the quality of the wood. environmental decoration.
Determination of oldest port
To determine the age of a door and, in fact, the age of a wooden structure, researchers can use tree chronology. This technique allows you to estimate the age of a tree when it is cut down. This is done by counting the number of rings present on the trunk of the tree.
From this and other studies, the researchers were able to conclude that the mythical structure is probably the oldest door in England. So it was built around 1050.
Therefore, this door is the only door dating from the Anglo-Saxon period of Great Britain between AD 450 and 1066, in addition, the ring patterns of the wood indicate that the oak probably grew east of the area from which the larger The crops came. Also related to the church.
For example, another port was found Switzerland It is probably one of the oldest in Europe and the world, dating back to the Neolithic period around 4000 BC.
with information from Westminster Abbey
