old key charm30mm Z3.06mm Y16.9mm XKeys are symbols of opening and closing. Locks and keys affect our lives in various ways. Sometimes a key means the difference between freedom and incarceration, or life and death.Keys also affect our lives in other ways; they give us security – we can lock our door and know that no one else has the key. We have keys to our homes, to our belongings, to suitcases, to cars. We have keys to garages, hotel rooms and boat cabins. When we’re away from home, we’re always carrying keys.But the road to the very first key was a long one. Because keys naturally belong to locks, which in turn require a bolt or beam, and those could only work in a swinging door or gate, which in turn required hinge pins, one on top and one on bottom. Without keys, no locks.The first keys were made of wood, as were the locks they fit. Initially, a lock was just a hole in the door and a wooden bolt that the key moved aside. The locks and keys used in the early Egyptian dynasties were also made of wood. The key lifted tumblers out of the bolt. The Ancient Greeks were the first to create keys out of metal – giant items that were worn on the shoulder. But Roman engineers created the basic lock concepts on which many of our modern locking solutions are still based. Many of the Roman keys are beautiful, perhaps the most beautiful keys ever made. Roman lock and key concepts spread over the (then) known world through traders, and with some help from the Great Migration in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire.