Bell tents

[richard robinson]

I am wondering what is the earliest we can ascribe bell tents and what cultures are known to have used them?

Thanks for any info

regards
richard

[garrelt]

Do you mean here a square tent with a central pole or a round tent also with a central pole?

As far as my knowledge goes for different tent types:
The square tent is depicted on the Utrecht Psalter (9th century)
The round tent Byzantine 9th or 10th century.

[Peter Raftos]

Richard,
Loking at Dr Dawson's Levantia site he notes " Some time prior to the eleventh century, the Romans converted to generally using round tents. One scholar suggested that this happened as early as the seventh century, and that this style of tent was adopted from the Avars,6 but the jury is still out." - George T. Dennis, The Strategikon of Maurice, p. 13, note 7. See Levantia Tents

Sven has extracted this:
Page 13. “Each squad should have a tent, as well as sickles and axes to meet any contingency. It is well to have the tents of the Avar type, which combine practicality with good appearance.

note 7 = The Avar tents were round and roomy.”

p. 14, using pack animals to carry tents.
p. 59, intermediate camps and small tents.
p. 95, the enemy setting up camp with out protection.
p. 105, use tents to find spies.
p. 123, don’t pitch your tents near a thickly wooded area.
p. 155, place encampment in open country.
p. 159, setting up fortified encampment.
p. 164, diagram of fortified camp.

[richard robinson]

Garelt i meant the round one and mr raftos

[Cheyenne]

Culturally, round tents have been used for many thousands of years by Nomadic cultures accross the world.

I have excavated sites which are Mesolithic in origin where there has been some evidence to suggest that temporary structures such as hogans and single pole skin tents could have been used by hunter gatherers in Europe in the early Holocene (ie: after the melting of the last glacial coverage around 10,000 yrs ago).

they are notoriously hard to recover from the archaeology due to the organic nature of their construction, but we do see in some areas of excellent preservation such as the Danish Baltic coast, the impressions from potential tent outlines. These are very rare however.

In situ flint knapping debitage gives an idea of the positions in which people may have sat around a fire which could have been inside a tipi like construction made from bark mats or waterproofed skins.

[Joze Noriker]

Hi, yes, the Calire spoke good!
The "bell-tents" are evidented in neolitic Europa, this form of the tent i saw in the museum in Nürnberg in focus of the "neanderthal-house" and they were the "protection of the fire" - the "fire-house" the same way as the Claire was talking about.

The alternative to the bell-tent are the lavuu tent!
Here:
http://lavvu.com/

But be careful: the tents can be usually evidented by the ancient nomadic tribes and not by the urbanisated tribes f.e. by the Scythians.

Joze

[Caballo]

I'd agree- a very long pedigree of bell tents being used..
From the Utrecht Psalter




Mr Sibley simply took a very ancient tent design and patented it in the Victorian age- it has a much longer history.