another tent/persona question

Armourkris · Post by **Armourkris** » Fri Apr 13, 2001 9:56 pm

Ok, so my persona is a Gaul, hailing from right around the rhine lands, one of the belagae clan, yada yada yada..
my question is this, does ANYONE know what i'd use tent wise, if anything, when i was on the move, i cant seem to find anything on that area of their civilization, and i'd imagin that some sort of shelter would have been used when raiding, traveling, or whatever else gets you out of the town.

what would you recomend?

------------------
What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word, As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:

Owen · Post by **Owen** » Fri Apr 13, 2001 11:56 pm

Stolen.

------------------
Owen
"Death is but a doorway-
Here, let me hold that for you"

Le Brassey · Post by **Le Brassey** » Sat Apr 14, 2001 12:07 am

Sorry, but you made ME think of another tent question:

We know from Homer's Iliad that the Greek Argives camped alongside their warships in tents. Is there any evidence as to what these might've looked like?

------------------
Henri le Brassey
(mka: Timothy Finkas)

Fearghus Macildubh · Post by **Fearghus Macildubh** » Sat Apr 14, 2001 1:16 am

Unfortunatley almost all we know about the Gauls is what Caesar wrote in the Gallic Wars. I have an excellent book called Caesar against the Celts which goes in depth ainto roman politics, gallic politics, culture, campaings and a bit about their material lifestyle. Of course, I can find no mention of tents :-(

The thing to remember is that the Gauls were largely a tribal people, most of the wars were between neighboors within a few days travel of each other. no real ned for tents. But the Helvetti were supposed to be moving en masse during the early stages of the gallic campaing in wagons, i think. So what am I saying? No evidence for tents from such an early period, unless, you use a roman style one.
Slainte,
Fearghus

------------------
"How long will we fight? We will fight until hell freezes
over. Then we fight on the ice."
----------------------------------
The rules are: pillage first, then burn.
Failure to follow the rules will lead to
summary dismissal from the raiding team.

Le Brassey · Post by **Le Brassey** » Sat Apr 14, 2001 1:06 pm

Interesting to note that the Roman "wall" tents are in a similar shape to Greek & Roman temples. Makes me wonder if the Greek tents were similar to the Roman ones.

------------------
Henri le Brassey
(mka: Timothy Finkas)

JJ Shred · Post by **JJ Shred** » Sat Apr 14, 2001 5:35 pm

The Romans sometimes used leather tents. You need to find the hides of a couple of aurochs and stitch them together. Could be difficult though....

------------------
Virtus vincit invidiam
"Virtue overcometh envy"

Ziad · Post by **Ziad** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 12:46 pm

Bascot -

I know you were just joking, but didn't I read somewhere about an attempt to "back-breed" (No nasty jokes, please) to bring back the Aurochs? The last were killed, (IIRC), no more than 400 years ago. Wouldn't that be something special - Talk about a truly USEFUL sized drinking horn...

Just a thot
Ziad

Destichado · Post by **Destichado** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 2:40 pm

Yup. This morning I didn't know what in the seven hells an aurouch (still don't know how to pronounce it) was, but I looked, and lo and behold -jeeezus, that's a big skeleton! Turns out, there were two attempts at reverse-breeding aurochs (how do you pronounce that?) Both from Germany, one in Berlin -which is where all the remaining aurochs that you might see in zoos came from, and another from He..... (it's German, and it sounded signifigant. Sorry.) But that strain died out, so no one cares anymore anyway.

The aurochs that presently exist are a little smaller than their extinct Granddaddys, and a little lighter. So, (if you read the article on powerdrinking) don't expect any 5.5 liter drinking horns any time soon!

Owen · Post by **Owen** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 4:21 pm

All evidence leads to Roman military tents being made of leather, not fabric. Goatskin or calfskin, most likely. The Legio XX's has something like 89 goatskins! It appears that skins available then were bigger, as Pliny mentions that it took 35 skins to make a legionary tent.

------------------
Owen
"Death is but a doorway-
Here, let me hold that for you"

Reinhard · Post by **Reinhard** » Mon Apr 16, 2001 4:50 pm

There's a bit of debate over the exact dimensions of Legion tents too, so you can get away with slight variations on the official size.
(Of course, once you cut your goatskins, the 'real measurements will be discovered and your tent will of course be too small)
My personal view is that it changed over the years, but that's just me.

I have no idea about gallic tents, or if they even used them. Sorry

Buran · Post by **Buran** » Fri Apr 20, 2001 4:14 pm

Greatly do I love the Migration Age barbarians, if there was a group dedicated to them I would think about joining. ;>

The problem is the documentation. Either you can go for "best guess" or "Hollywood authentic" where as long as nobody knows any better, you're in. Or you can dig through archaeological records in foreign countries in another language. Then you'd have something.

I doubt if most Gauls lived in anything resembling Roman tents unless the Romans adopted some of their patterns.

Good luck!

------------------
<><><> <><><> <><><>
http://www.geocities.com/baldurstrand/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/California_Viking_Age