#bone needles

Imagine standing in the vast and wind swept landscapes of the American West over twelve thousand years ago. The air bites with a ferocity that modern humans rarely experience. This was the end of the Pleistocene epoch. It was a time when the Earth was locked in a deep freeze and survival meant more than just finding food. It meant mastering the elements. For decades researchers have wondered how…

These two pieces of worked bone have polish and perforations and were probably needle-related implements of some type. 

The top needle (or perhaps a shuttle?) is a narrow, fairly flat section of long bone from a bird. It has a naturally concave interior surface and a naturally convex outer surface. One end tapers to a rounded, flattened point, while the other is broken through a perforation. 

The bottom example is a well-worn fragment of polished bird bone, broken at both ends and naturally concave on the inner surface. It has an elongated perforation in the center and half of another perforation at one of the broken ends. 

New Open Access Article- Roman bone needles for sewing, knitting and embroidering from the collection of bone items at the Museum of Slavonia in Osijek