RomanArmyTalk

I'm digging into the literature on roman tents and for a conturbarium, eight man, tent, the papilio, and I see two distinct types, low side wall with a steep roof angle, and high side wall with a low roof angle. The low side wall variant , as constructed for Junkleman, was described by Richmond in the 30's from leather fragments found at Birdoswald and Newstead, and the high side wall variant comes from leather fragments found at Vindolanda. Does the Vindolanda evidence now make Richmond's reconstruction obsolete? To quote Dr Bishop in the 2nd edition of "Roman Military Equipment", "The reconstruction they offered, ... has to change as more finds of leather work have been made." Does this mean that the low side wall variant is no longer considered to be correct? If so, this sucks, as I prefer the appearance of the low side wall tents.

Also, make sure that I got this right, 10 roman feet = 9.6 modern feet ( which means that the Junkleman tent is a tad too big).

Dear Titus,

Check the literature by Carol van driel Murray, she has written several articles about leather tents. She thinks the tents should have a high side wall, as parts of these were found in Valkenburg (NL) and Housesteads (if I'm not wrong).

Greetings

maarten

Hallo,
in my copy "Die Legionen des Augustus", (9th edition from 2003), Junkelman indeed wrote in the addendum that the low side wall reconstruction is now obsolete. Also the book has a newer plate with an updated drawing of a high side wall tent. (And a picture from a trajan's column relief that shows high side wall tents).

Quote:Check the literature by Carol van driel Murray, she has written several articles about leather tents. She thinks the tents should have a high side wall, as parts of these were found in Valkenburg (NL) and Housesteads (if I'm not wrong).

Dr. Bishop just emailed me a pdf of the C. van Driel Murray tent paper.

I must have an older edition of the Junkelmann book as my copy shows the low side wall tent.

So with this information are we to assume that any tent with a short wall is now considered "farb", or incorrect?

From reading the C. van Driel Murray paper, Richmond based the low side wall tent on very little evidence. In Vindolanda complete side wall panels were found including the tie-down points, making the side wall height unambiguous.



[url:2m2sjsc5]http://www.florentius.com/tent.htm[/url]

I'm also going to look into this pyrotone fabric. From a distance it looks like leather.