2009 XV AHC Period Encampment Inspection Report

Inspectors: Stephen Wyley (The White Company); Patrick Urquhart (NVG Inc – Rusland (Brisbane)); Wendy Tonzig (NVG Inc. – Ladoga (Adelaide)); Damien Phillips (Routiers)

Objective: To inspect the encampments of the 2009 Australian Historical Conference:

To determine the best presentation of a living history encampment, looking at arrange of criteria;
- Inside tents (flooring, bedding, furniture, documentation and overall presentation),
- Outside tents (style of tent, construction, pegs, eyelets, ropes, documentation and overall presentation),
- Cooking/Kitchen area (pots, cauldron, fire stands, tripod, utensils, furniture, documentation and overall presentation),
- Outside living area (consistent with period depicted),
- Domestic (drinking and serving vessels, utensils, furniture, etc.), and
- Overall encampment appearance and presentation;
To provide comments and feedback both verbally and in a written report on how to improve the presentation.

Inspection results:

Club Name	Good	Bad	Comments
Sydney Ancients (Wall tents)	Overall presentation of a part of Roman encampment, including the defences. An effort to hide the un-authentic cooking area and bags of wood. The couches, stools and other furniture.	Phillips heads screws in standards. Cigarette butts in an oil lamp. Plastic tie on straw bales. PVC pipes for transport outside tent. Nuts on shield. Gang nails on Trestle legs. Plastic bag, modern spoon, box made in Nicaragua, bar code on dowel inside tent.	Overall presentation was good but the imperfections overshadowed the good. A "Regression Award" for the Sydney Ancients.
Ancient Hoplitikon of Melbourne (Red wall tent)		Modern pegs, towels and boxes visible. Fibreglass shields and spear heads.	A long way to go.
Europa (Getalds and Viking tents)	Wooden pegs on Getalds.	Label on table, Chinese dragon hat, square wooden bowls, bolts in shields, length marking on end on getald pole, mortuary chair, chest with leather hinges and mortise sticking out from end.	Next time make a clear delineation between the Saxon and Viking part of the encampment. An "Improvement Award" for Europa.
NEMAS (Getalds and Viking)	Documentation for some of their encampment. Embroidery. Fire blanket for safety reasons	Plastic water bottle, a banana skin, spun domes, Phillips heads screws in lamp and on box, cast iron pot, plywood top on chest, 14^th c. benches, modern hinges on trestle, and fire blanket (visible during inspections).	Next time make a clear delineation between the Saxon and Viking part of the encampment. An "Improvement Award" for NEMAS.
Ancient Arts Fellowship (Getalds, bell tent and fly)	Cooking gear	Sanding pad, tea towel, towel, plastic knee armour.	Just a little care and housekeeping would have improved the presentation; the mixture of tent designs did not enhance the presentation.
Fire and Steel (Viking and Getald)	Hugh’s Charlemagne getald, period furniture and accoutrements (such as Oseberg lyre and chair, as well as archery equipment, beds, bucket and stools)	Modern tent pegs, peach with label on it	Next time make a clear delineation between the Saxon and Viking part of the encampment.
NVG Inc. – Miklagard (Bell tents)	Documentation for tents and furniture made available. Overall detail of tent features plus the sumptuousness of Peter and Nicky’s tent was awe inspiring.	Modern tent pegs, Phillips head screws on trestle.	Still some improvements to be made but attention to detail was very good.
Blue Draco (Wedge tents)	Tentage was well made, set out well and were of a consistent design.	Phillips head screws on boxes, rope handles on boxes, modern cups, cast iron cook ware, modern coffee pot, label on timber from supplier.	Set up was good but marred by modern imperfections.
NVG Inc. – Rusland (Wedge tent and fly)	Consistent tent design with presentation. Hand sewn edging on shields, Byzantine cookware and icon.	Bolts on weapons rack but rack useful for safety and control reasons. Modern pegs, Phillips head screws on bucket, bolts on round shields.	A good presentation, some fine detail but too many modernities.
Talerwin Forge (Viking tent and fly)	Viking tent and bed.	Modern pegs, no locks on chests and visible 'Visa' sticker.	More of a traders stall than a real encampment entrant.
NVG Inc. – Hodegon (Viking)	Viking tents, Oseberg bed, chair and loom. Reproduction bed spread and chests.	Coffee pot, chests without locks.	A good presentation, just a few imperfections.
Ratus (Viking)	Tent and cooking gear.	Ratus (he is made of rubber).	A small presentation but rates a small mention.
NVG Inc. – Antioch (Bell tents)	Fine tents and cooking utensils.	Only closed tents provided. Orange peel in fire, modern markings on the bottom of wooden bowls.	Internal presentation of some sort would have improved their result.
The White Company (Bell and Wedge tent)	Limited display of furniture and accoutrements.	Only closed tents provided. Modern pegs, chest needs a lock rather than a hasp.	Internal presentation of some sort would have improved their result.
Prince Rupert’s Bastards (Wedge, Getald, Square marquee)	It was hard to find something good to write about.	Mixture of period furniture, modern pegs on getald, billy, modern brazier, modern axe (by "Saxon Garden Tools").	A hodge podge of this and that, lots of work to be done.
Routiers (Wall, Wedge, Bell, and a Getald)	Some very fine presentations and accoutrements.	This part needs to be broken up by tent owner(s). Ross’ (the Captain); Oranges, plastic bottle, coat hangers and modern shoes. Robert’s; Screws on trestle, modern pegs, modern aluminium case, Landsknecht sword, modern sheet music. Wayne and Glenda’s; modern tent pegs, carved box (Indian). Damien’s; modern carpet, futon base, chest out of period, plastic joiner and gaffer tape on ridge pole. Peter’s; a getald, modern tea towel, mortuary chair, and screws on chest. Around the camp site; Viking tripod, 18th C lamp and a polish bell tent.	How the great have fallen. Winners last conference and many others previously. A "Regression Award" for the Routiers.

Comments:

It was decided by the members of the Inspectorate that the proposed scoring system was cumbersome and was replaced by recording the good, the bad and comments on each of the encampments, and a winner was chosen by consensus.

The efforts of most of the attendees to encamp in period tentage must be congratulated because it has never occurred in the 14 preceding conferences. The location of the encampments in a large 'U' shaped time line, from the Roman and Greek, Dark Ages, Viking, Varangian , 14^th the 17^th Century was impressive, what ever the light (the torches were a nice touch). The provision of the hard accommodation certainly assisted with not having any non-period tents erected.

It was noted by the inspectors that the Sydney Ancients (Conference Committee) and the Routiers (Magdeburg Tavern) had their principles acting in prominent roles within the hierarchy of the Conference organisation and it was concluded that this had contributed to a lower than usual outcome in the results of this report and thus both groups were awarded the "Regression Award", especially given their previous high ranking presentation.

However it was very disappointing to discover the number of imperfections highlighted in the 2007 report that still had not been corrected (i.e. Phillips head screws in standards, bolts in shields, etc).

Special commendations for Hugh's Charlemagne Getald. And because of their vast improvement by NEMAS and Europa from 2007 Conference they received the “Improvement Award”.

Conclusions:

The conclusions of the report are:

Overall, the level of authenticity and presentation of period encampments has, on a whole, improved.
It was noted the some of the attendees have gone out of their way to present a consistent and historically correct presentation above and beyond the norm.
However, lack of knowledge, proper supervision of the presentation or slackness could have been reasons for low results of some of the participating encampments, which are not hard things to fix.

The results (top 6);

Club Name	Position
NVG Inc. – Miklagard (Sydney)	1st
NVG Inc. – Hodegon (Melbourne)	2nd
Fire & Steel	3rd
NVG Inc. – Rusland (Brisbane)	4th
Sydney Ancients	5th
NEMAS	6th

Recommendations:

The recommendations of the report are;

make and effort to clean and tidy up the encampment each morning.
vet objects before they are used in an encampment display.
go the extra yard (i.e. use period tent pegs, decoration on your Viking tent pole ends, locks on your chests, etc.)
formulate a consistent encampment presentation prior to a display.
and please read and put some of these findings and recommendation in place.

Acknowledgements:

Thankyou to my fellow inspectors, the conference committee and most of all the participating encampments and their members.