Who invented stairs?

There are so many things we take for granted, but I bet someone, an individual, somewhere, at some time, actually INVENTED that thing… it didn’t exist beforehand.

Stairs are what I have in mind. Steps. Inside or outside. It’s interesting looking on google for information about this - some say that Hallstadt in Austria has the world’s oldest staircase, in the salt mine. We were there earlier this year, in Hallstadt at least, and I’m sorry to say we missed this interesting feature - but who knows if it’s really the oldest stairs.  My bet (on the basis of no evidence at all) is that it was a woman who dreamed it up, showed her people what she had in mind, and hey presto! Nice safe stairs were a thing, instead of slippy slides slopes.  They say the Hallstadt stairs are 1400 years old, in the mine which was started 7000 years ago….  If anyone would like to put me right on any of this, please do.   I am also thinking how some tree roots provide a kind of natural stepped surface….

We were sweating up the steep slopes and steps to visit the castello in Bosa today, under a baking hot sun, and then coming down - further down than up, as it happens, into the medieval outskirts of the citadel - where the steps are themselves very sloping and risky.  They’re edged in hard stone, and some are infilled with river pebbles.. a colossal task of construction and design. 

Like all castles, it’s impossible not to imagine one great big powerful ‘lord’ ordering all this to be done, and a vast number of minions and lackeys slogging their guts out to do what they were told.  (For years, I used to want to live in a castle, but no more.  They seem to me to represent the worst kind of defensive personality… apparently safe, but actually very lonely and embattled).   Stairs - spiral or straight - are key to all these emplacements. Everything has to be carried up.  Stairs make the passage nominally easier…  This castle was built in the 12th century, further militarised in the 14th, and converted into an old folks’ residence in the 18th. It’s pretty basic. The church inside the walls has some vivid wallpaintings, including two fine horses. 

(My readers will know that I search for horses inside medieval English churches mostly in vain. They are usually there to represent the devil, though not in this case).   There is a fine moral lesson in one of these paintings, showing a dead man lying peacefully on his bier, then half rotted, and then a skeleton. This was meant to make people behave better in this life so they wouldn’t go to hell in the next.

We had a very welcome lunch on a shady street, 

and wandered through the town, eating nice ice cream and calling into another very dark church.  I was pleased to see a Hooked Diamond rug in front of a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary - no doubt just a coincidence... The design on the rug is one of the most ancient female designs, again dating back 7000 odd years. The zigzags might, just, represent a staircase... who knows?

Then we went back to Bosa Marina to see the revived Trenino Verde set off on its two hour jaunt (€45)… The diesel engine (1958) was pulling a charming wooden carriage (1913) and I think every seat was taken, by a jolly group of old people, mostly women, behaving like happy kids.

Bosa’s river (named Temo - cf Thames, Thame, Tamar, etc) is Sardinia’s only navigable river - for about 5km. It is now a tourist attraction, and has a good coastguard base with launch and helicopter. The kingdom of Aragon fought the burghers of Genoa for centuries to control the whole area.  It’s all very nice.  We had a quiet day, recovering from that infernal racket last night.  Nice to call into our local bar for a campari on the way home.