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Bone Needles
Less than 5
cm long What is most remarkable
about these tiny objects is that a sharp-eyed excavator
spied them while excavating in a shell midden –
literally finding the needle in the haystack. Shell
middens are complex sites composed of millions of
fragments of clam shells mixed with discarded food
bones, pottery fragments, slivers of flaked stone
and, occasionally, a formed stone or bone tool
Bone needles have been found
in other sites in the northeast and they tend to date
to the Late Archaic Period, about 4,500 – 4,000
years ago. Native people must have used them with
very fine thread, perhaps made from animal sinew,
hair or vegetable fibers for fine work such as attaching
ornamentation to clothing.
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