Pit F
| Context Title: | Pit F |
| Context Name (Publication): | Flood Pit; Pit F |
| Context Name (Excavation): | PFT; Pit F |
| Context Description: | Pit F stands apart from the Royal Cemetery pits dug in the preceding year, despite its letter 'F' falling inside the sequence of those pits. The sequence of pit letters was assigned after most had been dug, probably in season 8 as confusion arose over pits I and J. Pit F was originally called PFT to distinguish it from pits in the Royal Cemetery area. The suffix T probably stood for Temenos to show that Pit F was dug in the area inside the early temenos wall. The abbreviation became confusing and Legrain reports PF as 'Flood Pit' and PFT as 'Shaft in town area,' but the two designations are actually identical. The term 'Flood Pit' was often used to refer to Pit F because of the deep layers of silt found near its deepest extent. As much as 3 meters thickness of fine water-lain soil was encountered here, evidence of a great flood. In his books and talks for the general public, Woolley often made the equation of this flood with the biblical flood, but in his academic discussions he never did. Instead, here he referred to the frequent flooding of the Euphrates and how this particular flood must have been large and may have spawned Sumerian legends. Pit F was extremely large and extremely deep. Woolley's intent was to reach the earliest occupation of the site. He chose an already low-lying zone neighboring the excavation area EH and laid out a trench 15x25 meters, though in the southern half he only dug 10 meters width, making the final pit L shaped. He truncated the horizontal extent further as he dug down to avoid collapse and he eventually reached a depth of some 19 meters from the surface of the mound. The top of the pit had already been denuded to the Early Dynastic levels and thus late material was typically not found here. From the surface, Woolley found eight levels of early building remains going deeper and deeper. Beneath this he found pottery kilns and a deep layer of over-fired pottery fragments indicating manufacture. Near the bottom of this stratum he began finding Uruk period graves (that he called Jemdat Nasr period graves). He labeled these not with numbers, but with letters in the sequence PFG/A through PFG/XX. Below this he encountered the flood layer with Ubaid period graves cut into it. Beneath the flood layer he found evidence of Ubaid habitation near sea level and what he believed to be indications of the early marshlands in which Ur had originally been a very low mound. |
Files
| Object | U Number | Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number) | Museum Number (BM Registration Number) | Museum Number (UPM B-number) | Description (Catalog Card) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15624 | (none) | 1930,1213.184 | (none) | Clay pot. Spouted (in fragments) TO painted ware, purplish paint, fugitive, on pale buff. Type CCCXCVI. 45. [drawing] | |
| 15502 | (none) | 1930,1213.183 | (none) | Spouted clay pot. TO painted ware. [drawing] black on greenish drab. Type CCLXVIII. 44. | |
| 14485 | (none) | 1930,1213.181 | (none) | Pottery fragment. Part of the shoulder & rim of a small vase of light red clay. On the shoulder decoration in red paint thus: Shape more or less thus: [Type newar 51(JN). [drawing] | |
| 14456 | (none) | 1930,1213.177 | (none) | Potsherds. Of Jemdat Nasr type with 3-color decoration all from one pot, but making up only a female fr. of it (see sketch in field notes). [Annotated] Card received from Mallowan, 1976 | |
| 15612 | (none) | 1930,1213.176 | (none) | Clay figurine. TO painted ware. Fragment. With black paint on greenish drab clay. Fore part of buffalo. [drawing 1:1] | |
| 15331 | (none) | 1930,1213.175 | (none) | Clay figurine. Torso only: in reddish clay with black paint markings. Nude female. [drawing 1:1] | |
| (none) | (none) | 1930,1213.174 | (none) | (none) | |
| 15376 | (none) | 1930,1213.173 | (none) | Clay figurine. TO painted ware. Head missing. Nude female suckling an infant. Dots on the right shoulder & stripes on the left, and she wears a necklace & bracelets & a black girdle. | |
| 15380 | (none) | 1930,1213.172 | (none) | Clay figurine. A nude female with hands on waist. The face is damaged & parts of it have flaked away & left lower arm is missing: on the tall head are remains of a thick coating of bitumen. (found in fragments & restored). | |
 | 15333 | (none) | 1930,1213.168 | (none) | Stone. arrowhead. Chalcedony(?) [drawing 1:1] |
| 14944 | (none) | 1930,1213.152 | (none) | Amulet. Pink stone. A phallus. [drawing 1:1] |
| 14469 | (none) | 1930,1213.151 | (none) | Bead. Blue glazed frit. Double conoid. |
| 15357 | (none) | 1930,1213.150 | (none) | Beads: One steatite flattened oval; one ring-bead of green-blue jade(?) and a quantity of minute while shell rings found with a head in the mixed burial L. [drawing 1:1] |
| 14946 | (none) | 1930,1213.145 | (none) | Spindle whorl. Of dark grey clay. Decorated with stamped dots. [drawing 1:1] |
| 14476 | (none) | 1930,1213.139 | (none) | Stamp seal. White marble(?) or pebble. scaraboid shape. Rudely engraved below thus: [drawing 1:1] |
| 15323 | (none) | 1930,1213.138 | (none) | Stamp seal. Black steatite. Square, with oval handle laterally pierced. Much worn: on the face a design. [drawing] |
| 14478 | (none) | 1930,1213.137 | (none) | Cylinder seal. Dark steatite. 3 deep grooves, between which 3 pairs of human figures rough primitive work mostly done with a drill-point. |
| 14962 | (none) | 1930,1213.132 | (none) | Cylinder seal. White shell. Design, a plam-branch and a running gazelle: above the latter, an eye. |
| 13703 | (none) | 1930,1213.131 | (none) | Cylinder seal. White shell. Broken at one end. Geometrical pattern, roughly thus. [drawing] |
| 15369N | (none) | 1930,1213.127 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| 15369M | (none) | 1930,1213.126 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| 15369L | (none) | 1930,1213.125 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| 15369O | (none) | 1930,1213.124 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| 15369K | (none) | 1930,1213.123 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| 15369J | (none) | 1930,1213.122 | (none) | Beads. Rings of white shell, a great quantity found forming 4 strings round the neck |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | 1955 | Woolley, L. | (none) |
| UPM Field Photo numbers | UPM Field Photo numbers | (none) | (none) | (none) |
- 2 Media
Sibling Locations
AH Site | AH - City Wall | CLW - DP - Dublalmah | LL - EH Site | EH - Ehursag | HT - EM Site | EM - Enunmah | TTB | ES - ESB - FH - Giparu | KP - Great Nanna Courtyard | PD - Harbor Temple - House 34/1 - House 34/2 - House Site - Kassite Fort - KPS Site | KPS - LT - LW - Mausoleum Site | BC - Neo-Babylonian Housing | NH - NNCF - NTB - P/103 - Palace of Bel-Shalti-Nannar | AD - Royal Cemetery | PG - SM - Temenos Wall | TW - TTC - XNCF - Ziggurat Terrace | ZT
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Context
Ur > Pit F
References
Woolley, L. . (1955) Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods, Oxford: Oxford University Press.