The Armour Archive

were snowshoes used in 16th century europe? I sit around wondering about stuff like this at work... I'm pretty sure some people back then had to venture out into the wilds during the winter months, so did they have a way to avoid trudging through knee or waist deep snow?

2nd question.. still thinking about 16th century europe, and wondering what would work better than a modern sleeping bag for that time period. I want to do some period sort of camping later this spring and I'm wondering what I should sleep in/on for a multi day treck through the woods on foot.

oh heck, one more question. I've seen those basket-backpack things in at least one woodcut of traveling landsknechts, and I've seen a few people with them at SCA events. is the basket part of these things shaped pretty much the same today as they were 'back in the day'?

The typical sleeping bag-esque thing in this period was a tick. A tick is a big bag of tightly-woven linen, like an oversized pillowcase. You stuff the tick full of straw or hay and use it as a mattress. In the morning, you empty out the tick and you're on your way.

The problem being, of course, that if you're trekking through the woods, you may not have a source of straw where you camp. In those cases, I think it's been said that soldiers on the march generally wrapped up in a wool blanket (which was probably also their cloak) and slept next to the fire.

I don't know any more than this. Sorry.

Kass

I am not sure of the snowshoes - my guess is they were not in use.
But use of skis was widespread in Northern Europe since time immemorial to the present day...
More specifically there have been found skis that predate the use of iron in these parts of the world and they were used continuousky. How far south their use spread I am not sure, but in Finland, all of Scandinavia and Russia skis would be the method number one for traversing snowy landscape.
Getting period looking crosscountry skis that are actually comfortable to use would be quite a project though.

For sleeping on in woods in wintertime I would recommend freshly cut fine branches of spruce. Over them blankets or furs. Helps to keep the wetness from melting snow off your blankets and otherwise isolate your body from the frozen earth. On the downside this will be looked negatively by the one who owns the area you want to camp. (Probably categorically verboten in any public park and not well liked by most private landowners either. And of course not allowed without permission of landowner.) But it was done in period...