Locks are used all over the world to secure belongings, ensure personal security, and prevent unauthorised access. There are a wide range of different locking mechanisms on the market, including key locks, combination locks, and Padlocks (Vorhangschlösser) . Locking mechanisms have a long history of use all over the world, both in western civilisations and throughout the east. In many ways the history of locks runs parallel with the history of civilisation, as individuals look for ways to secure their possessions and protect their families from harm. While hiding objects or constantly guarding them was probably the first way that early people secured their belongings, locking devices quickly developed and have been in use ever since.
The earliest known lock type devices used knots to detect entry and secure items, such as the Thief knot or the Gordian knot. While historians are unsure of where the first ever locking devices originated from, there is evidence of their use in a number of historical civilisations. Evidence of locks and locking mechanisms has come from the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman civilisations, with the first ever evidence of wooden keys found as early as 4,000 years ago in Assyria. The first key locks are thought to be pin locks, where a lock device is strung on a rope that is hanging out of a hole in a door. These kinds of locks share a number of similarities with modern cylinder locks, where a cylinder of wood with a hole in proportion to the key is drilled through the axis of the cylinder.
While the pin lock system is still used in some parts of the world, most places have graduated to more secure and advanced mechanisms. Another type of lock in the history books is the warded lock from China, which came to Europe in the Middle Ages. Padlocks have also been in use for a long time around the world, with the first devices found in York, England at the Jorvik Viking settlement, from 850 AD. While the basic mechanism of padlocks has remained much the same over time, advances in the machining of metal and die-casting have led to stronger locks that are more secure and long lasting. Locks continue to play an important role in human civilisation, with a number of modern advancements in electronic security and computer controlled locking systems.