Vindolanda digging report day seven--and the Quiz again.

I myself am working through a patch of fairly barren slag and rock.  The best thing I came up with was another bit of the marked tile.  I call it Brand XXX

Elsewhere on the site various lost items of the Roman era have turned up, a spindlewhorl, a few small coins, a copper belt buckle.  And some nice pottery bits.  Here is a decorated pot with a warrior and a bunny!

One of my photogenic fellow diggers, Al, with a nice vase top....

And the quiz.  Ah, yes. There were actually four teams with at least some Vindolanda diggers on board.  I was able to assemble a fair pool of talent, which mostly means a misspent youth listening to bubblegum pop music.  We set our sights on third prize.  First prize was an antiquated LP of Scottish ballads.  Second prize a bottle of Rose of dubious vintage.  And third prize, well, wait and see.

For a while we were in peril of total victory.  Then a question came up that, if I recall correctly, was:  "By tradition in Liverpool, if a virgin walks under an eave which contains a bird's nest, what happens?".

By strategically pointing out that this was a highly theoretical proposition, unlikely to have ever been tested, we incurred a five point penalty and secured a second place finish.

We were then able to trade the bottle of wine for the dime store fake bird.  (advertised as a budgie, but this like so much of the quiz, is questionable at best).

Roman legions had an eagle attached to their legionary standards, something like this:

We decided we needed a legionary budgie to go on the marker pole used to photograph the location of finds.

Here is a long range view

And the close up:

Your humble correspondent on the Roman frontier.