Paleolithic needles and the evolution of clothing

A team of researchers led by a University of Sydney archaeologist are the first to suggest that eyed needles were a new technological innovation used to adorn clothing for social and cultural purposes, marking a major shift from clothing as protection to clothing as an expression of identity.

“Eyed needle tools are an important development in prehistory because they document a transition in the function of clothing, from a utilitarian to a social function,” explains Dr Ian Gilligan, honorary associate in the discipline of the archeology at the University of Sydney.

From stone tools that prepared animal skins for humans to use as thermal insulation, to the advent of bone awls and eye needles to create fitted, ornate clothing, why did we start to dress to express ourselves and impress others?

Dr. Gilligan and his co-authors reinterpret evidence from recent discoveries in clothing development in their new Scientists progress paper“Paleolithic eye needles and the evolution of clothing. »

“Why do we wear clothes? We think it's part of the human condition, but if you look at different cultures, you realize that people existed and functioned perfectly well in society without clothes,” says Dr. Gilligan. “What intrigues me is the transition of clothing from a physical necessity in some environments to a social necessity in all environments. »

The first known eyed needles appeared about 40,000 years ago in Siberia. One of the most iconic Paleolithic artifacts of the Stone Age, eyed needles are more difficult to make than bone awls, which were sufficient to create fitted clothing. Bone awls are tools made from animal bones sharpened to a point. Eyed needles are modified bone awls, with a perforated hole (eye) to facilitate sewing sinew or thread.

As evidence suggests that bone awls were already being used to create tailored clothing, the innovation of eyed needles may reflect the production of more complex and layered clothing, as well as the decoration of clothing by attaching beads and other small decorative objects to the garments.

“We know that until the last glacial cycle, clothing was only used occasionally. The classic tools that we associate with this are skin scrapers or stone scrapers, and we find them appearing and disappearing during different phases of the last ice ages,” says Dr Gilligan.

Dr. Gilligan and his co-authors argue that clothing became an item of decoration because traditional methods of body decoration, such as ocher body painting or deliberate scarification, were not possible during the last part of the last ice age in the colder regions of Eurasia. because people had to wear clothes all the time to survive.

“This is why the appearance of eyed needles is particularly important, as they signal the use of clothing as decoration,” says Dr. Gilligan. “Eyed needles would have been particularly useful for the very fine stitching needed to decorate clothing.”

Clothing has therefore evolved to meet not only a practical need for protection and comfort against external elements, but also a social and aesthetic function for individual and cultural identity.

Regular wearing of clothing allowed larger, more complex societies to form, as people could settle in colder climates while cooperating with their tribe or community based on shared clothing styles and symbols. The skills associated with clothing production contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle and improve the long-term survival and prosperity of human communities.

Covering the human body regardless of climate is an enduring social practice. Dr. Gilligan's future work looks beyond the advent of clothing as clothing and examines the functions and psychological effects of wearing clothing.

“We take for granted that we feel comfortable when we wear clothes and that we feel uncomfortable when we don't wear clothes in public. But how does wearing clothes influence the way we view ourselves, the way we view ourselves as human beings, and perhaps the way we view the environment around us? »