Dear Stefan,

To my knowledge, the instances of excavated (or at least, professionally excavated AND reported) tipi-rings are quite rare, however I shall sieve-through my library to see if I can find some examples for you. In the meantime, I have a small article published by an old friend and colleague, a review of historical photographs of actual tipis, which you may find of interest. I have placed a PDF copy on my web-server where you may download it here:

http://aerostat.skiles.net/tipi_photos.pdf

Best regards, until later,

Bob Skiles

PS -- would you have an interest in the large ceremonial stone circles created contemporaneously by the same Plains Indian cultures, called "Medicine Wheels?" I believe that I have a HUGE report on an example (perhaps there were associated tipi rings with it, I do not, now, remember) found and reported on the Army's gigantic Fort Hood installation just north of where I live here in the capital of Texas (Austin), which I may be able to find and digitize for you ... IF you have a PRESSING interest in this topic *chuckle*

Dear Bob,

the article with the historic tipi photographs is a gold mine of information. Many thanks to making it available to me (and to others)! But I'm still interested in tipi rings with individually recorded finds. This is because in Europe there a several sites from the late Pleistocene, where you have a dense find concentration around remains of a hearth, which may mark the ground plan of a tent, but whith no evident feature as a stone circle. E.g.:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251042421_De_la_gestion_des_dchets_de_combustion__lorganisation_de_lespace_Un_dernier_hiver__Pincevent__les_Magdalniens_du_niveau_IV0_%28Pincevent_La_Grande_Paroisse_Seine-et-Marne%29   (fig. 11)

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264237059_Latent_dwelling_structures_in_the_Final_Palaeolithic_Niederbieber_IV_Andernach-Martinsberg_3_Berlin-Tegel_IX

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264235103_The_Magdalenian_dwelling_of_Orp_East_%28Belgium%29_and_its_spatial_organisation

In most case it is difficult to decide, if there was a tent or not. That's why I would like to compare the find concentration of sites, where a tent clearly existed, with those European sites, where only remains a find concentration of lithic artefacts but nothing else.

Best regards,

Stefan

Article De la gestion des déchets de combustion à l’organisation de ...

Article Latent dwelling structures in the Final Palaeolithic: Nieder...

Chapter The Magdalenian dwelling of Orp East (Belgium) and its spati...

Although I'm not really convinced by the method myself, you could give the ‘rings-and-sectors’-approach a go to see if it yields useful results. But I totally agree, some ethnoarchaeological examples for comparison would be very welcome indeed.

Dear Rengert,

the ring-and-sector method of Dick Stapert may indeed help in some cases. As at Grub / Kranatwetberg:

Philip R. Nigst, Eine Behausung aus dem Gravettien? Vorläufige Ergebnisse der GIS-basierten Analyse der räumlichen Verteilung der Fundobjekte in Grub/Kranawetberg (Niederösterreich). Archaeologica Austriaca 88, 2004, 29–66.

http://www.eva.mpg.de/evolution/pdf/Nigst-2006-ArchaeologiaAustriaca.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/40852879_Eine_Behausung_aus_dem_Gravettien_Vorlufige_Ergebnisse_der_GIS-basierten_Analyse_der_rumlichen_Verteilung_der_Fundobjekte_in_GrubKranawetberg

But it works only well if the find concentration is more or less circular and the hearth is well centred. This is not always the case, as fig. 14, 16-20 of this article show:

Claus Joachim Kind, De toutes petites pierres dans la boue. Les sites mésolithiques de Siebenlinden (Rottenburg, Bade-Wurtemberg, Allemagne du Sud-Ouest). In: Boris Valentin, Bénédicte Souffi, Thierry Ducrocq, Jean-Pierre Fagnart, Frédéric Séara & Christian Verjux (Eds.), Palethnographie du Mésolithique Recherches sur les habitats de plein air entre Loire et Neckar Actes de la table ronde internationale de Paris, 26 et 27 novembre 2010, Séances de la Société préhistorique française, 2-1 (Paris 2013), p. 251-266.

http://www.prehistoire.org/offres/file_inline_src/515/515_P_26054_15.pdf

Best regards,

Stefan

Article Eine Behausung aus dem Gravettien? Vorläufige Ergebnisse der...

It is not clear whether in all cases the form of a find concentration reflects the shape of a dwelling at all, as illustrated in:

Lewis R. Binford, In Pursuit of the Past: Decoding the Archaeological Record (Berkely and Los Angeles, 1983).

Fig. 120  Distribution of manufacturing debris within Palangana's House:

https://books.google.de/books?id=49QQAeeZINkC&lpg=PA176&ots=5WrCrOWs2S&dq=Binford%20Palangana&hl=de&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q=Binford%20Palangana&f=false

Fig. 118  Density map of pressure flaking chips from stone tool manufacture in and around Palangana's House:

https://books.google.de/books?id=49QQAeeZINkC&lpg=PA176&ots=5WrCrOWs2S&dq=Binford%20Palangana&hl=de&pg=PA178#v=onepage&q=Binford%20Palangana&f=false

More examples would be welcome. There should have been some excavations since 1983 ...

Best regards,

Stefan

You are out for some heavy duty Google search, to my knowledge most of the reasonably well excavated sites are published in reports rather than the scholarly literature available in Europe.  here are some hints: start browsing Plains Anthropologist, where this paper for example shows up:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25668306.pdf

from Canadian Archaeological Associations homepage i fouund a link to free download of ocassional papers from Archaeological Survey of Alberta:

http://canadianarchaeology.com/caa/news-announcements/archaeological-survey-alberta-%E2%80%9Cblue-series%E2%80%9D-publications-are-now-available-free-d

where this one for example is available:

http://culture.alberta.ca/documents/Occasional08-09-TipiRingsLazyDogAlkaliCreek-1978.pdf

But you may also find interesting stuff by following the references in Native American Architecture  By P. Nabokov and R. Easton

good luck

Dear Jens,

many thanks for the link to the book by Quigg & Adams (The Lazy Dog Site / The Alkali Creek Sites) and to the paper by Brasser! I will need some time to exploit the link in the middle of your answer ...

Best regards,

Stefan

Plains Anthropologist is indeed a good journal to look. E.g.

Gerald A. Oetelaar, Beyond Activity Areas: Structure and Symbolism in the Organization and Use of Space Inside Tipis. Plains Anthropologist Vol. 45, No. 171 (February 2000), pp. 35-61.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25669638.pdf

Fiig. 7:

Best regards,

Stefan

Dear Stefan,

Jens is correct about the Plains Anthropologist being the "gold mine" for tipi ring site publications. Memoir No. 19 of the Plains Anthropologist:

Davis, Leslie B. (editor)

1983 From Microcosm to Macrocosm: Advances in Tipi Ring Investigation and Interpretation. Memoir 19. Vol. 28, No. 102, Pt. 2, pp. 1-375.

... was a compendium of these publications. I believe this volume has Michael Quigg's excellent article Jens has cited as well as several other equally valuable ones. I have been trying to find an online resource for you, but alas! now that I am retired, I no longer have access to any of the online services the university libraries that would allow me to view and/or download this journal for you. Perhaps you could get a student with access to JSTOR or some comparable science journals service  to do that from Europe?

Best regards,

Bob Skiles

Dear Bob,

many thanks for the tip. Here is the link to the article of Quigg:

J. Michael Quigg, Social structure at the Ross Glenn tipi ring site. In: Leslie B. Davis, (editor), From microcosm to macrocosm: Advances in Tipi Ring Investigation and Interpretation. Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 28, No. 102, Part 2: Memoir 19: (1983), pp. 304-318

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/25668431.pdf

Best regards,

Stefan

Not in either location you mention but a tipi type shelter.  Page 17 in  http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-285-1/dissemination/pdf/vol_145/01Butler.pdf

Gives a slightly different perspective.

No tipi ring, but a beautiful ground plan of a (probable) late Palaeolithic tent from northern France:

Miguel Biard & Cyril Marcigny, Campement paléolithique supérieur en bord de Seine. Archéopages 35, October 2012, 96-97

http://www.inrap.fr/userdata/c_bloc_file/15/15996/15996_fichier_biard-marcigny-actualites-archeopages35-BD-12.pdf

Best regards,

Stefan

You might look at the work done by Colorado College in SE Colorado in the mid 1970s and 1980s. Sadly, only some hard-to-find gray-literature reports were generated from all of this work. You can see the list at . 

Dear John,

many thanks for your answer and the link. I'm going to sift through the reports.

Best regards,

Stefan

Dear Paul,

thank you very much for the article by Chris Butler.

Best regards,

Stefan

Hello Stefan,

If you haven't seen this yet, maybe the following reference is of help (the author is on researchgate).

Janes, Robert R.

An Ethnoarchaeological Model for the Identification of Prehistoric Tepee Remains in the Boreal Forest.  Arctic 42(2): 128-138.

There is an external download link for the article.

Regards,

Michael

Dear Michael,

this is indeed a very useful article. But from the link in ResearchGate:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237376586_An_Ethnoarchaeological_Model_for_the_Identification_of_Prehistoric_Tepee_Remains_in_the_Boreal_Forest

one can download only the first part of the paper.

The full article is on open acess here:

http://arctic.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/article/view/1649

http://arctic.journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/arctic/index.php/arctic/article/view/1649/1628

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic1649

Best regards,

Stefan

Article An Ethnoarchaeological Model for the Identification of Prehi...

Hi Stefan,

Do you have actual "tipi rings" or circular rock features? The reason I ask is because not all of these circular rock features are tipi rings, especially in the Great Plains area. I would suggest looking at ethnographic/ethnohistoric sources.

Best of luck,

Patricia

Dear Stefan,

Thank you for posting the link where the full Janes article may be accessed; you are a kind man for providing us this convenience, and your kindness is greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Bob Skiles

Hi Patricia,

I'm looking for tipi rings or comparable remains of dwellings from a broad geographical range (North America and Siberia). And above all I'm interested in the spatial distribution of objects left behind within these features.

Of course there are some stone circles which where not used as dwellings but maybe served ceremonial purposes. But that's nor what I'm looking for.

All the best,

Stefan

Hi,

even if there are no distribution maps, this article (on open access) is worth reading:

Thomas F. Kehoe, Tipi rings: The “direct Ethnological” approach applied to an archeological problem. American Anthropologist, Volume 60, Issue 5, October 1958, 861-873.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1958.60.5.02a00060/pdf

DOI: 10.1525/aa.1958.60.5.02a00060

Best regards,

Stefan

Equivalent archaeological features have been studied for the Sami Iron Age (0 BCE up to 1500), most extensively by Inga-Maria MULK. Her Ph.D, thesis (1993) published by the University of Umea, is unfortunately in Swedish but has abundant plans, figures, maps and an English summary of tipi excavated in northern Sweden. Particularly creative is her testing of a model of gendered space within the tipi by mapping the distribution of male and female gendered artefacts discovered though archaeological excavation. See also STORLI, Inger (1993) Sámi Viking Age pastoralism – or the Fur Trade reconsidered.  Norwegian Archaeological Review 26: 1-20.  Storli presents an interpretation that her excavations of tipi hearths reveal early Sami reindeer pastoralism, which is rejected by Mulk and others in the discussion that follows the paper who prefer to see the evidence in terms of reindeer hunting.

Hi Tim,

many thanks for the references. I'm curious about Mulks conclusions in respect of the existence of gendered spaces within the dwellings.

Best regards,

Stefan

Give me a postal address and I can photocopy and send you the relevant pages -- I guess you can read Swedish pretty well. In Sami pastoralist society circa 1600 the internal space within the tent was strongly gendered, women to the right (east) of the hearth, men to the left (west) and behind the hearth food storage space and access (in a northwards direction) to the spirit world. Inga-Maria tested the distribution of gendered artefacts to see if this model works for Sami hunting society.

Hi Tim,

I'm interested in the photocopies and I'm going to send you a mail. I hope to be able to read the legends.

A gendered use of space is also supposed for Mesolithic dwellings from Scandinavia (Gron 2003, fig. 11):

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259605054_Mesolithic_dwelling_places_in_south_Scandinavia_their_definition_and_social_interpretation

On the other hand, in the article of Janes cited by Michael Bletzer (see above),

Robert R. Janes, An Ethnoarchaeological Model for the Identification of Prehistoric Tepee Remains in the Boreal Forest.  Arctic 42(2): 128-138.

the author notes: "Ethnographic observations of this tepee in 1974 and 1975 revealed a variable door location, a constant hearth location and considerable fluiditiy in the use of space ..." (p. 136)

Best regards,

Stefan

Article Mesolithic dwelling places in south Scandinavia: Their defin...

Hi,

this is an interesting study, even if the maps are somewhat coarse:

Cheryl Irene Forner, A model for the examination of gender within domestic spaces on the Northern Plains. (Master of Arts (M.A.) thesis, Saskatoon 2005)

http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-01172008-092837

Best regards,

Stefan

There is a useful article that summarises the use of space in the kata (tent) in Sami pastoral society:  Yates, Tim 1989. Habitus and social space: some suggestions about meaning in the Saami (Lapp) tent ca. 1700-1900, in Ian Hodder, ed., The Meaning of Things. Material Culture and Symbolic Expression, 249-265. London. What Mulk ('Sirkas', 1994, pp. 201-221) tried to do was test this model, based on historical ethnography, for the earlier hunting society. There were not really enough female gendered artefacts from her 21 excavated tent sites for it to work, but an interesting approach.   Tim.

Hi Tim,

many thanks for the reference of the article by Yates.

Best regards,

Stefan

PS: looking for this article, I find three publications which should be noted here (although at the first look they seem not to contain excavation plans with plotted small finds):

Priscilla Renouf, A review of Palaeoeskimo dwelling structures in Newfoundland and Labrador. Études/Inuit/Studies, vol. 27, n° 1-2, 2003, p. 375-416.

http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/010809ar

DOI: 10.7202/010809ar

Patricia Sutherland, Variability and change in Palaeo-Eskimo architecture: A view from the Canadian High Arctic. Études/Inuit/Studies, vol. 27, n° 1-2, 2003, p. 191-212.

http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/010801ar

DOI: 10.7202/010801ar

David G. Anderson, Robert P. Wishart, Virginie Vate (eds.), About the Hearth: Perspectives on the Home, Hearth and Household in the Circumpolar North. New York 2013.

https://books.google.de/books?id=UeXTAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Dear Alwynne,

many thanks for this wealth of information!

Best wishes,

Stefan

Hi Stefan

Myabe it isn't to late for answer to this question, that's why I send You this. Maybe it will be useful.

D. J. Seymour 2009; Nineteenth-century Apache wickiups: historically documented models for archaeological signatures of the dwellings of mobile people, "Antiquity", 83(319): 157-164.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228653359_Nineteenth-century_Apache_wickiups_Historically_documented_models_for_archaeological_signatures_of_the_dwellings_of_mobile_people

Best Regards

Maciej Wawrzczak

Article Nineteenth-century Apache wickiups: Historically documented ...

Hi Maciej,

many thanks for this reference. I didn't know this article and it is worth reading.

Best regards,

Stefan Wenzel