Threshold

Henrik Boman & Monika Nilsson

In the door opening is a three-piece threshold of lava, with each piece of different length and thickness. The threshold has cuttings for a small inwards-opening door and a cutting for a night door. The doorframes do not extend over the threshold and there are no cuttings for wooden linings of the doorframes.

A pivot hole and two other holes have been cut into the rear part of the northernmost stone, presumably for a locking arrangement. The two southern stones are only cut for the night door; they are also more narrow than the northern stone with the inward opening door.

It is possible that the broad northern threshold of the small door indicates that this was the most used entrance of the room; the narrower thresholds by the night door would have been used more rarely, but were still necessary for the shifting of goods.

Despite the difference in width, the stones are nicely fit. The foundation of the threshold is concealed under modern concrete with imbedded smaller stones; it is not possible to see any specific construction features in this part of the threshold system.

The height of the threshold over the pavement is in the south c. 0.42m and in the north c. 0.34m, a difference of 0.08 m in less than the width of 3m of the door. To explain this difference in elevation, is it possible to assume that a smooth elevation between the room and the atrium was more essential than an easy access from the street. This might indicate that the room once had been closed, as V 1,14 — a higher elevation over the pavement was the outcome when the rooms were rearranged.