6thC Roman Tent Illustration - from where????

[Mithras]

Hi,

I picked this picture up off of the Late Roman Secunda forum a few weeks ago, and I never did find out its origin. Since Secunda was hacked and is not yet bck on its feet, can someone here help me????

This is the picture, captioned as 6thC:



All help gratefully received!

[Carlton Bach]

It's from the Vienna genesis, a manuscript believed to by of Syrian origin.

[Daniel S Peterson]

There is another similar shelter like this depicted in a Frankish Psalter, perhaps 200 or years later. I seem to recall this being posted on RAT previously. Vortigen? But are these actually tents? They seem to be little more than a large blanket with no system of flaps or a fly.
Dan

[Carlton Bach]

They look like nothing so much than big multipurpose tarps. I wouldn't at all be surprised to find such things in use in the Roman world. They are good for all manner of things, not least making A-frame tents. But given the regular appearance of the frame it does look as though they were carried as an assemblage in this case.

[Mithras]

Interesting, heh? I want to reconstruct one, which frankly I think even I can do! I have the canvas, I have three sturdy poles the gardener left behend after felling some young trees at the school I work at. I want minimum 'engineering' - to replicate, as you say, the idea of a general purpose tarp thrown over staves recently put together. It looks like a great patrol tent for the Late Roman army.

Questions - any survival/camping experts out there care to comment on the feasibility of notsewing in loops for tent pegs and for some general advice on putting together that pole structure? I'm thinking of somthing 'field expedient' rather than carefully crafted. If the poles were gathered locally, what techniques would work to bind them effectively? The frame would need to be strong enough to support a wet canvas ... surely a basic lashing would not be strong enough.

Any ideas guys ...

[Mithras]

I know this is heading directly into Re-enactment and Reconstruction, and so I apologise, but I've just Googled up a modern survival technique to keep plastic tarps in shape. This addresses my thoughts on not having tent loops, ie. using a basic tarp, not a ready made tent. Pebbles are put inside the tarp, and the guiderope for the peg just tied around the canvas-covered pebble:



I imagine a single canvas sheet being used as a general purpose piece of equipment, picking up pebbles, foraging for suitable poles, only carrying the canvas and rope or string. It fits that 6thC picture, and it feels 'right' - though that does not of course square with the historian in me which looks only at facts and dismisses conjecture.

[Crispvs]

I have spent many nights out under large tent flies when hiking in the mountains in New Zealand. In order to cut down on weight we never carried tents except when we were likely to be camping above the snow line. Instead we merely carried flies designed for 'family sized' ridge tents, each big enough to allow six to eight people to sleep underneath. These flies were essentiallly flat tarpaulines and to cut down on the cost most lacked eyelets for guy ropes. Normally we used conveniently sized deadfall branches we found lying about for poles, although occasionally we carried metal poles. Wherever possible we would hitch a rope tightly between two trees and hang the fly over this. If this was not available we normally just pulled the ends of the fly down over the tops of the poles and hitched guy ropes to them. We rarely used any sort of guy ropes for the sides of the fly as there were normally sufficient numbers of rocks around for us to be able to simply weight the sides down with stones. Only strong or blustery winds would run any chance of pulling the fly out from under the stones but I do remember waking up a number of times looking up into the blue (or grey) sky of morning with no immediate sign of the fly. If we expected snow we would try to get the ridge and sides of the fly as taught as possible so as to allow the snow to slide off rather than build up and soak through. In stormy weather generally at least someone would wake up if the fly was partially lifted away and get up and furiously try to fix it down again before the rain woke everyone else up. Naaturally enough, whenever possible the flies were always positioned with the sides, rather than the ends facing into the wind, to minimise the chances of the fly being lifted by wind. If the weather was bad we generally took turns to be the ones who had to sleep at the open ends of the fly, meaning that no-one got rained on two nights running (although we were flooded out a number of times)! I have tied knots in flies on a couple of occasions in order to attach guy ropes but I have never used the 'pebble' method you have demonstrated, although I am in no doubt that it would work well. Regarding the strength of a lashing versus the weight of a sodden canvas, if it has been done properly (ie tightly and with enough tightly done frapping turns to hold the tension in place), a basic square lashing should easily be able to support this weight. In fact, in wet conditions the rope, if wet, would expand and make the lashing even tighter. I would be more worried about the strength of the poles themselves. I would certainly try to use three rather than two upright poles if I was going to use a ridge pole, particularly if I expected that I might have to storm-lash it.

I hope this helps.

Crispvs

[Mithras]

Crispvs, many many thanks for that detailed account. It will help me immensely and I'll keep it as a reference. Although I'm initially planning this as a 'show tent' as part of my impression as a 'legionnary on the march with full kit', chances are I won't be able to resist sleeping in it. Your experience is invaluable!

Again, thanks!