Threshold

Thomas Staub

Threshold between room 16 and atrium4.
The threshold is made of one travertine stone block, placed in the door opening, with a front part (atrium side), which is wider than the door and protruding into the floor of the atrium and abutting against the atrium side of the partition wall. Since the narrows sides are L-shaped, the doorposts are not standing on the block, but the block is put against these posts. The threshold was made to serve a double-leafed door, which opened up into room 16. The rim functioning as door stop is situated in the door opening, approx. 0.145 m from the inner edge of the threshold. Thus the inner part of the threshold is slightly lower (0.03 m), than the other part.
On the surface of the threshold several indentations can be observed, often arranged pairwise: on the inner lower part of the threshold two pairs of indentations are found, the outer ones are the pivot holes, the inner ones are for the locking bolts; on the higher part of the threshold two pairs of thin slots can be observed, one pair situated parallel to the inner sides of the doorposts, the other on the front side of the threshold, parallel to the partition wall on the atrium side. Into these slots the wooden doorframes were inserted. In line with the latter pair two more slots are carved into the threshold, slightly further towards its centre, whose functions remain unclear.