Decorated key

Among the common objects belonging to the group of houshold items are keys, used to lock doors and boxes. They were made by rolling up a piece of sheet metal and forming a protruding element at one end, that was inserted into the lock. Some were forged out of an iron billet. The least complicated bolts used in doors required simple keys, often referred to as hooks – formed out of straight or twisted rods, bent at a right or slightly obtuse angle at one end, wrapped on itself to form an eyelet on the other. The key found in Kamień was forged out of a piece of iron, and it was most likely used to lock a padlock. Medieval padlocks include cylindrical ones with a movable or hook-shaped shackle, as well as padlocks in other shapes with a movable shackle. Each required using a different type of key. To open the most popular cylindrical padlocks with a movable shackle, one had to use long keys with a transverse protruding piece and a hole.

Grzegorz Durdyń