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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15529 | 31-17-358 | (none) | (none) | Clay jug. TO painted ware. Black on drab. The paint fugitive & much of the design gone. Type CCCLXXIV. 50. [drawing] | |
 | 15528 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay bowl. Painted ware. Pinkish drab with design very roughly done in a fugitive red paint now mostly flaked off. Type CCCLXXIII. 22. [drawing] |
| 15527 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Black on light drab. Type CCCXLV. aU.25. [drawing] |
| 15526 | 31-17-304 | (none) | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Black on light drab. Type CCCXLV. 23. [drawing] | |
| 15525 | (none) | 1930,1213.192 | (none) | Clay pot. TO painted ware. Black on green. Miniature: roughly made by hand and carelessly painted. Type CCCLXXIII. 30. [drawing 2:5] | |
| 15524 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay pot. Plain light drab ware with creamy slip. Type [CCCLXXII crossed out] 52. |
| 15523 | (none) | 1930,1213.316 | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Type CCCXLV. 23. [drawing] |
| 15522 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay tumbler. Plain drab ware. Very thin. (broken & much distorted) Type CCCLXXI. |
| 15521 | (none) | 1930,1213.209 | (none) | Clay platter. TO painted ware. Plain broad black border on green clay. Type CCCLXVI. 4. | |
| 15520 | (none) | 1930,1213.533 | (none) | Bone stylus ? With arrow-like head, flattened. [drawing 1:2] |
| 15519 | 31-17-10 | (none) | (none) | Clay cone. Drab clay. Use unknown. [drawing] |
| 15518 | 31-17-290 | (none) | (none) | Clay platter. TO painted ware. Fragments only. Green clay with broad band of black on rim and net pattern attached to it. Type CCCLXVI. 4. [drawing] | |
| 15517 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay bowl, or platter. TO painted ware. Black on light drab. Type CCCLXVI. 4. [drawing] |
| 15516 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. Fragment. Head & body to waist (no arms) of a nude female figure of unusual type: the high wig probably existed but is broken off. [drawing 1:1] |
| 15515 | 31-16-555 | (none) | (none) | Bitumen. A large lump bearing on one side the imprint of coarse reed matting. | |
| 15514 | (none) | 1930,1213.296 | (none) | Clay smoother(?) oval object of greenish drab clay, slightly convex (perhaps cut & ground from a pot fragment): perhaps a smoother: rather like objects found in the kiln level above. | |
| 15513 | 31-17-367 | (none) | (none) | Clay pot. TO painted ware. Black on light drab. In fragments (too broken to type accurately). Type ? [one type crossed out] 360. 32. | |
| 15512 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay cup. Plain white clay. Very fine quality. In fragments. Type CCCXLV. |
| 15511 | 31-16-486 | (none) | (none) | Stone palette. A disk of reddish-brown pebble: in the centre a patch of red color (ground powder) of exactly the tint used to paint the face of the figurinee 15398. (chipped, and a piece of the rim missing). |
| 15510 | (none) | 1930,1213.199 | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Black on green (very thin walled) (in fragments( Type CCCXLV. 23. [drawing] | |
| 15509 | (none) | 1930,1213.218 | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Dark brown on pinkish drab. ( in fragments) Type CCCXLV. 23. [drawing] | |
| 15508 | 31-17-306 | (none) | (none) | Clay cup. TO painted ware. Black on greenish drab. Type CCCXLV. 23. [drawing] | |
| 15507 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. Nude female: very light drab clay: standing,the hands resting on the flanks: on the head a hight bitumen wig and grotesque beak-like face (broken and mended). |
| 15506 | (none) | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. A woman holding a serpent. Very light creamy drab clay. Nude figure: on the head a high bitumen wig: grotesque beak-like face: on the shoulders in front & behind, added pellets to represent cicatrices(?): childs head painted black. Figure restored from fragments (the clay is very soft and brittle) and feet of woman missing. |
| 15505 | (none) | 1930,1213.196 | (none) | Clay cup. To painted ware. Chocolate brown on pinkish drab. (red clay) (in fragments, & very full of salt). Type CCCXLV. 25. [drawing] |
| Media | Media Title | Title | Label | Author | Omeka Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UPM Field Photo numbers | UPM Field Photo numbers | (none) | (none) | (none) |
| Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | Ur Excavations IV; The Early Periods | 1955 | Woolley, L. | (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.