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.
Bone needles, like these, must have been used with very fine thread, perhaps for work such as attaching ornamentation to clothing.