The Interesting Reality of Tents – the First Vs the Modern Recreational Tent
The need for comfort and safety when sleeping out in the open has been present for thousands of years, but the quality of the tents we’ve been using has changed drastically in the last couple of decades. Tents have been around for quite some time now, but the materials they are made of, their features and designs have started changing after the industrial revolution. Although they are far more sophisticated, today’s tents are inspired by the shape and design of the oldest tent ever, found in Russia from about 40,000 B.C.. However, both the old and the new ones serve the same purpose – to provide you with warmth and comfort wherever you may be sleeping.
Now let’s talk about the tents that have pioneered in the 1960s and gained popularity in the decades that followed. The most unique example of this is definitely the backpacking (hiking) tent. This type has all the needed features when it comes to one person hiking tents because it is fully waterproof and easy to set up. Plus, it is very lightweight and has aluminium poles that keep it firmly stable on the ground.
Speaking of aluminium poles, a lot of them can be found in geodesic tents as well, crisscrossing the outer layer in a hexagonal or a triangular shape. This means that they provide the most stability, and are the best choice out of all one person hiking tents. There’s also a subform of geodesic tents called semi-geodesic tents and they’re basically the same thing, except they have fewer poles which means they are less stable. On the pricier, but fancier, side are inflatable tents, which are the easiest to set up and are very spacious. However, keep in mind that you will need an air pump and a lot of space to store them when they are deflated.
Before all the technological breakthroughs and advancements, tents were much simpler but they were harder to make and transport. Back then, people lived mostly in them and had no stable construction for a permanent home. The first tent was made out of mammoth skin and some wood to support its structure. So, when it comes to the design and materials tents were made of, there was little to none advancements in the first 50,000 years of human existence.
Right around 450 B.C. portable yurts and teepees (tipi) came along deviating from the original tent shape, because of the different surroundings they were used in. In 300 B.C. Romans started implementing big tents made out of goat skin so they could fit 8 soldiers for the mobility of their army. From 1861 to 1865, soldiers in the civil war were using similar tents too, and they used to call them pup tents because they could barely fit a full-grown dog.
