Pit F

General

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

General

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Objects: Pit F Export: JSON - XML - CSV

U Number	Museum Number (UPM Date Reg Number)	Museum Number (BM Registration Number)	Museum Number (UPM B-number)	Description (Catalog Card)
14924	31-17-267	(none)	(none)	Copper fish hook (?) 1 barb. No sign of hafting. [drawing 1:1]
14415	31-17-249	(none)	(none)	Copper tool. (a narrow chisel or engraving-tool) round stem flattened to narrow chisel blade. [drawing 1:1]
14922	31-17-270	(none)	(none)	Copper spatula (?) Slender metal rod with flattened disk head. [drawing 1:1]
14460A	31-17-268	(none)	(none)	Copper pin.
13723	31-16-505	(none)	(none)	Weight of grey stone. Lentoid, with flattened base. [drawing 1:1] Type II
15586	(none)	1935,0112.70	(none)	Stone pestle or pounder mottled stone (like a kind of granite?) [drawing]
13656	(none)	(none)	(none)	Tablet. 4 payments by weight (Ur III or Larsa) HC.505.
13683	(none)	(none)	(none)	Tablet. Round tablet, silver by weight and bronze archaic, perhaps rather later that archaic. Collection from 1928/29 HC.400.
14440	31-17-225	(none)	(none)	Copper arrowhead. Flat hammered blade & square tang. Broken but complete. [drawing 1:2]
13746	31-16-489	(none)	(none)	Stone object. Obviously a fragment from a small shallow stone bowl (basic diorite?) rubbed down and pierced with holes. [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]
14992	31-17-233	(none)	(none)	Copper Spearhead. From 1 of the early graves.
14952	30-12-415	(none)	(none)	Copper pin. Straight and pointed at each end.
14419	31-16-121	(none)	(none)	Clay bottle. Drab clay. Type CCCXIII. JN.67 new. Not in catalog.
14950A	31-16-162	(none)	(none)	Drain-pipes. Plain terracotta tubes found together forming a drain which ran out through the house-wall into the street. Not in catalog.
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.
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.
14412	31-16-219	(none)	(none)	Paint. The lower part of a plain clay cup containing plum-colored paint in powder form. Not in catalog.
13708	31-17-370	(none)	(none)	Clay jar. Fragments of. With nicked ornament on rim & shoulder-line, and combed or scrabbled ornament on shoulder (see field notes for drawing). Type RC.116 variant.
13710	31-17-402	(none)	(none)	Libation vase drab clay. Type ?12CXLIV [unclear] Not published [ This contradicts publication info on same catalog card]
13734	31-17-333	(none)	(none)	Clay tumbler. Fragment. Type CCCIII. Not in catalog [drawing]
13743	31-16-217	(none)	(none)	Clay funnel. Light drab clay. Type RC17. [drawing]
13759	31-16-90	(none)	(none)	Clay vase. Type CCC. =JN41 new. Not in catalog.
13760A	31-16-76	(none)	(none)	Clay vase. Type CCCIV. =RC89. =JN77. Not in catalog. [drawing]

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Media: Pit F Export: JSON - XML - CSV

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)