Those umbrella/pinecone things

[-JKP-]

Yes Koen Gh, it is a Balneis, and I should have said so. What I meant is I don't know which specific MS this particular one is. The circular tent motif seems to be a constant across various versions. 
And throughout all of these suggestions, the questions remain: if the objects are tents, then what is the weird scalloped stuff going on underneath them? If they are pinecones, then why are they cut in half with a raised central pod?
It seems we have yet to find the right object...

I investigated these natural bathing places all over the world and particularly in Europe and eastern Europe and found scads of them that could be interpreted as similar as the VMS.

Note how some of them appear to have constructed walls?


Many of the natural spas and bathing places I located have those walls built with natural stones from the area (some dating to Roman times and earlier) and, as I mentioned, many have natural grottoes nearby.

Often you have to hike down, so you set up camp up top and you hike down hills, sometimes through cliffs, etc., to get down to the water, to the bathing spots. Sometimes they constructed steps and planks to get there. It really isn't much different from what happens today. People set up camp and hike down or into the area with thermal pools, springs, waterfalls, and otherwise flowing water.


So, I had hoped to locate the exact bathing area, but there are so many that have all these features, all over the place from Sweden to Africa, and from Spain to eastern Europe and beyond, that I didn't have much luck. The pictures are quite consistent with healthful bathing and recreational bathing of the time and many of the bathing areas had waterfalls, rivulets, and caverns nearby also, which might explain some of the "flowing water" and grotto imagery, and since some are from Roman times, there were pipes to bring down some of the water, as well, but there are hundreds of spots like this and many have green water or a combination of green and blue water depending on the layout of the pools.