Basalt door

Roman, about 2nd-3rd century AD
From the Hauran, Syria

This door is carved in imitation of a wooden door studded with metal and nails. It is from the Hauran, a region which today is largely a windswept, flat, volcanic plain. In antiquity it was a much more attractive region. It was colonized by the Greeks and became prosperous in Roman times, when it was one of the granaries of the Roman Empire.

Many of the buildings of the region were constructed of the local basalt, which was used both for large-scale buildings such as fortresses and for small-scale projects such as this door. In fact one of the most important sites of the Roman period in Syria was Bosra, which was built entirely of this stone.