The lock is estimated to be 4 000 years old.
How did romans lock their doors.
It spread from egypt to greece and eventually to the roman empire where it was further adapted to smaller locks that could secure.
You can see that the pin mechanism is not that different that what you would find in the lock in your front door.
Roman padlocks in metal were constructed very much after the fashion of the fourth primitive type of lock for doors mentioned earlier.
The clumsy egyptian pin tumbler locks were transformed into elegant roman pin tumbler locks of steel fitted with an ingenious roman invention steel springs.
Keys were no longer too big to lose or lift indeed some roman keys were small enough to wear on a finger.
Presumably the vast majority of locks being used were padlocks as there would have been more versatile in their application.
Roman locks too were an improvement on the egyptian model.
Discover more about the history of locks.
The locks were often tiny masterpieces in terms of both precision and design.
The simple key and pin principle has persevered over the century.
Archeologists found the oldest known lock in ruins near nineveh.
The shackle or hasp which was separate from the body carried on its lower side a pair of spreading springs which entered a hole in the end of the body when the two pieces were being put together.