La Prele is an archaeological site in Wyoming where mammoths were hunted 13,000 years ago. During the last ice age, continent-wide glaciers barred entry into the Americas, but when the climate warmed, an ice-free corridor opened, and hunter gatherers migrated south. Careful sieving at La Prele recovered quite a few tiny-eyed bone needles. A new technique that analyses bone proteins has shown that the needles were made from the bones of rabbits, bobcats, hares and mountain lions. In archaeology, it is often the small and unexpected finds that are significant, and needles are a case in point. The mammoth hunters had to endure a very cold climate that necessitated well insulated, multi-layered clothing. By exploring the origins of the humble needle, we can document a breakthrough that enabled early humans to migrate into frigid habitats where food in the form of mammoths, the woolly rhino and mastodons was there in abundance. The earliest known needles come from Denisova cave in the Siberian Altai, and date back 40,000 years. There are several other sites in this region, and it was from eastern Asia that those first intrepid hunters crossed Beringia into the Americas. We find needles in many sites, as far west as France and Spain.
There is no hint that Neanderthals used eyed needles, so you may well ask, how did they survive the Ice Age? In the summer of 1957, I spent a long and exciting summer excavating the Reindeer Cave at Arcy-sur-Cure in France. As we dug deeper, we entered occupation remains left by the Neanderthals at least 50,000 years ago and there, we found some bone awls. This has led to the suggestion that the awls were used to puncture holes in prepared animal skins that could then be stitched together into protective garments resembling ponchos. When examined under a microscope, these awls have polish and wear marks that, experiments show, were made by consistent puncturing of holes into leather. This would have then involved the threading by hand, a tedious task that the eyed needle ended.
Moreover, there is a second shaft of light on early human thoughts and actions posed by the needle, and that is decoration, for it takes needles to stitch ornamental beads on to what you wear. Advertising your wealth and status by showing the world that you own something of value is a peculiarly human behaviour, and it takes one back 34,000 years to the Russian site of Sunghir, near Moscow. There, a man was buried wearing clothing on to which 3000 mammoth ivory beads had been stitched. One of my most memorable discoveries was the grave of a woman interred about 4000 years ago in Thailand. She wore 121,000 shell beads stitched on to two layers of clothing that would have literally radiated sunlight when she was alive. I think this number of beads should be in
Guinness World Records.
