The eye of the needle
A needle with an eye lets skins be sewn into fitted clothing, and the Arctic becomes survivable.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 5 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 3 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Eyed needles of bone and ivory appear in Siberia — including at Denisova Cave — from around 45,000 years ago. An awl can pierce hide, but only a needle with an eye can pull thread through and produce close-fitted, layered, wind-proof garments. The distribution of needles tracks the occupation of the coldest environments closely. Tailored clothing is arguably the technology that made the high latitudes, and therefore Beringia and the Americas, reachable at all.