Pit W

General

Context Title:	Pit W
Context Name (Publication):	Pit W
Context Name (Excavation):	Pit W
Context Description:	Pit W was excavated from the bottom of area PG near Pits Y and Z in order to more fully explore the Seal Impression Strata discovered running across the cemetery. Since these strata contained so many early seals and tablets it was clear that they were essential for dating the graves and for learning more about the administration of the city of Ur. In order to observe the strata more clearly, Pit W was much larger than most exploratory pits in the cemetery region, laid out to be 15x7 meters. It was dug from the northeast side of PG/1631 but its horizontal extents were not mapped and Benati (2015) believes that PG/1631 was mistaken for PG/1648, placing Pit W somewhat farther SE. Its published stratigraphic profile shows that PG/1631 (possibly 1648) was actually somewhere near the middle of the long side of the trench and Woolley states that Pit W was placed so as to virtually fill the gap between Pits Y and Z, but was set a few meters northeast of them. This allows for a relatively accurate placement of the pit. Pit W quickly ran through the seal impression strata but Woolley continued it down much farther, as he had with Pits Y and Z, to reach about a meter below sea level. He thus uncovered many graves earlier than the main Royal Cemetery, and because he believed them to be from the Jemdet Nasr period, he began JNG numbers for them. This discovery, combined with early graves in Pit Y, spawned the conception of a Jemdet Nasr cemetery running beneath and south of the Royal Cemetery, and in season 12 Woolley would seek to expose it in Pit X.

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General

Objects: Pit W 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)
(none)	(none)	1935,0113.425	(none)	(none)
18692	(none)	(none)	(none)	Bead of clouded pale mauve chalcedony. [drawing]
19247	(none)	1935,0112.80	(none)	Beads. 1 shell tube, and 2 oval shell frontlets; diamond beads of lapis, mother-of-pearl, paste and limestone, paste balls, small shell rings, quartzite rhomboid and square paste spacers.
18464	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. 3 long spacers made from the lips of cowtie shells, shell tubes and black stone barrel.
18690	33-35-153	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian balls and date-shaped, and one lapis lazuli ring.
18427	33-35-149	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian polished rings.
18465	33-35-152	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and 1 tubular.
18581	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and one cylindrical of black stone.
18576	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and one short tube of white frit probably once glazed.
18476	(none)	1933,1013.170	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and one tubular.
18554	33-35-145	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and shell cylindrical, the latter coarsely made.
18441	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and two barrel-shaped of black steatite and 1 shell cylindrical.
18430	(none)	1933,1013.169	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings and white shell tubes and rings.
18459	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings, 1 agate and 1 dark steatite cylindrical, 2 pink limestone short tubes and some shell rings.
18582	(none)	(none)	B 16723	Beads. Carnelian rings, lapis cylindrical and 2 white steatite beads.
18460	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings, lapis rings, 2 lapis tubular and one ball.
18425	(none)	1933,1013.163	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18428	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18445	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18473	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18474	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18475	(none)	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18484	33-35-150	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18521	(none)	1933,1013.168	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.
18580	33-35-147	(none)	(none)	Beads. Carnelian rings.