What is meant by "surface of the oven"?

Maybe the sides? Let’s have the full quote.

I would assume the “floor”. It’s such a peculiar expression in reference to an oven. Is it a translation from some other language?

Is it telling you how high above the bottom to place something to bake it?

What are the rest of the surrounding instructions?

One inch is really close to the element/flame.

Are you broiling or baking?

As said by other jellies above; we need more of the recipe instructions to figure it out.

It was talking about baking baby back ribs so I just assumed it meant from the bottom of the oven, so that’s what I did and ended up having to bake them for another half hour, just so they would start falling off the bone. Thanks anyway for all the help!