Pyx of the Day
This is the Pyx Door. It is part of Westminster Abbey. It is mostly important because earlier this year it was identified officially as the oldest door in Britain. The details of the process are unimportant, but for those interested, you can find them on the Abbey’s website.
What I found most interesting were reports on both the website, and the website of Heritage Today magazine, the magazine of the English Heritage, who had a part in the dating process. The part that caught my eye:
“A detailed archaeological study of the “Pyx” door, which opens into the outer vestibule of Westnimster Abbey’s octagonal Chapter House, reveals that the wood in the door was felled between 1032 and 1064AD, and that the door was made some time in the 1050s.”
There’s more to the reports than that. But I’m a numbers kind of person. God is in the details and all that. Take a look again.
Hmmm… let’s see, I understand that the archeological process is inexact, and was only able to narrow down the range to between 1032 and 1064. But from other records, they know that the door was manufactured in the 1050s. One might think that the period from sometime in the 1050s until 1064 could be eliminated as a possible date for the “felling of the wood.” Not that I’m an expert carpenter, but my guess is few doors are made from wood while it’s still in the middle of the tree.
