History Door Locks

It was a forerunner to a pin tumbler type of lock and a common egyptian lock for the time.

History door locks.

Archeologists found the oldest known lock in the khorsabad palace ruins near nineveh. They appeared in ancient times and received constant upgrades with the arrival of new manufacturing processes over the last 4000 years. The lock was estimated to be 4 000 years old. The first recorded history of doors was found in egyptian tomb paintings 4000 years ago.

No one knows who invented the door only that it was first incepted somewhere in central egypt. It consisted of the wooden post that was affixed to the door and a horizontal bolt that slid into the post. This lock worked using a large wooden bolt to secure a door which had a slot with several holes in its upper surface. Locks such as this were later developed into the egyptian wooden pin lock which consisted of a bolt door fixture or attachment and key when the key was inserted pins within the fixture were lifted out of drilled holes within the bolt allowing it to move.

The earliest known lock and key device was discovered in the ruins of nineveh the capital of ancient assyria. History of locks and keys spans the entire range of our modern human civilization. Learn more about their incredible journey here. The development of physical security is much more complicated than a linear history of locks and keys.