Note 53: — XV.—TOOLS, BUILDING, AND SCULPTURE. (Wall-Cases 45-48.)

A series of bronze coverings (No. 496) for the pivots of doors reminds us of the fact that in ancient times most of the doors worked on a different principle from our own. The bronze-covered pivots (fig. 203b), rigidly fixed to the door by a key-piece, turned in bronze sockets(c) fitted into the lintel or threshold. This arrangement explains the allusions to the grating of doors met with in ancient writers.53 Hinges of the modern type were, however, well known. Examples are to be seen in Cases 47, 48, among them a hinge with the fragments of the wood, to which it was originally attached, still adhering (No. 497).