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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15356B | 31-16-737 | (none) | (none) | Baked clay figurine. 2 fragments from similar figure. Green clay with black paint. Nude female figure with painted waist-band. The modelling of the lower part is unusually free and round. [drawing] | |
| 15398 | 31-16-736 | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. The head only. On the high headress(?) traces of black bands: the face painted bright red. [drawing 1:1] | |
| 15356A | 31-16-735 | (none) | (none) | Baked clay figurine. 2 fragments from similar figure. Green clay with black paint. Nude female figure with painted waist-band. The modelling of the lower part is unusually free and round. [drawing] | |
| 15379 | 31-16-734 | (none) | (none) | Clay figurine. Female figure, nude, with hands on waist. She wears a high headdress, or high coiffure, originally covered with bitumen: traces remain of black apint in the eyes and of red paint on the cheeks. | |
| 15385 | 31-16-733 | (none) | (none) | Terracotta figurine. A nude female standing, with the hands resting on the waist. The high head is covered with bitumen to represent hair (this preserved). | |
| 13718 | 31-16-724 | (none) | (none) | Clay model wheel. Not in Catalog 7. | |
| 14945D | 31-16-712 | (none) | (none) | Clay ring. Three, found one inside the other [A-C]. (Also another, D, from about the same level it was found nested with 2 others, both incomplete.) Not in catalog. | |
| 14939 | 31-16-710 | (none) | (none) | Clay tool. Probably a burnisher. Looking like a clay copy of a bone original. Blade triangular in secion, the wider side slightly hollowed out. [drawing 1:1] | |
| 14938A | 31-16-709 | (none) | (none) | Clay tool. ? a potter's smoother. A. flat & shaped. Thus: [drawing 1:1] B. a second similar but smaller | |
| 15598 | 31-16-590 | (none) | (none) | Clay sickle (complete) | |
| 14933 | 31-16-589 | (none) | (none) | Clay spoon. Greenish drab ware. [drawing 1:1] | |
| 14985 | 31-16-588 | (none) | (none) | Clay axe (imprefect). [drawing 1:1] | |
 | 13729A | 31-16-585 | (none) | (none) | Clay sling bolts. Ball type. |
| 15327A | 31-16-584A | (none) | (none) | Clay sling bolts. Pear-shaped. | |
| 14933B | 31-16-577 | (none) | (none) | A Clay nails. Round type, the shaft mostly straight and bent round at the tip, which is missing. B. Complete, the end bent round greenish clay. | |
| 14933A | 31-16-576 | (none) | (none) | A Clay nails. Round type, the shaft mostly straight and bent round at the tip, which is missing. B. Complete, the end bent round greenish clay. | |
| 14464 | 31-16-559 | (none) | (none) | Spindle whorl. Greenish drab clay with incised decoration (conical top) [drawing 1:1] |
| 15515 | 31-16-555 | (none) | (none) | Bitumen. A large lump bearing on one side the imprint of coarse reed matting. | |
| 15332 | 31-16-551 | (none) | (none) | Bitumen object. Perhaps a staff-head(?) [drawing 1:1] | |
| 14920B | 31-16-519 | (none) | (none) | Flints. Set in bitumen. Which fixed the flint either to wood or to bone. [drawing 1:1] |
| 13716 | 31-16-517 | (none) | (none) | Fragment of Obsidian lid. Ground down to a thinness of one millimetre, originally a dish about d. 80, of greying obisidian. [drawing] |
| 14942 | 31-16-516 | (none) | (none) | Obsidian. Triangular instrument. Roughly chipped. [drawing 1:1] |
| 14983 | 31-16-512 | (none) | (none) | Long-shanked stud(?) or nail. White obsidian. [drawing 1:1] |
| 13723 | 31-16-505 | (none) | (none) | Weight of grey stone. Lentoid, with flattened base. [drawing 1:1] Type II | |
| 13719 | 31-16-494 | (none) | (none) | Clay Disk. Pierce through the centre. The flat edge is notched all round, and round it runs a shallow roughly-cut groove thus, but rough and irregular. [drawing] |
| 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.