Eyed bone needle
Aguja de hueso con ojo
- Date
- c. 50 ka · confidence medium
- Place
- Denisova Cave, Altai, Russia
- Credited to
- Homo sapiens (or Denisovans)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A 7 cm bird-bone needle with a bored eye. It allows hides to be sewn with tight seams and made into fitted, waterproof, layered clothing.
Sibudu (South Africa, 61 ka) has awls/needles without an eye; Denisova (50 ka) and Kostenki (40 ka) have the earliest eyed examples. Chinese needles (Xiaogushan) date to c. 30 ka.
What it led to
- Tailored clothing: survival on the glacial steppe and in Siberia
- Colonisation of Beringia and the Americas
- Sewn-hide tents, footwear and bags
- Craft specialisation and the transmission of cutting patterns
Built on
Made possible
- Bone-and-hide tent structurec. 44 ka
- Footwearc. 40 ka
- Rich grave goods and beaded sewn clothingc. 34 ka
- Surgical suture (needle, thread and catgut)c. 500 BCE
- Pivoted scissorsc. 100 CE
- Needle lace (punto in aria)c. 1530
- Bone-and-hide tent structure
- Rich grave goods and beaded sewn clothing