Serpentine needle, TibetYun Chen/Sichuan University
Posted on 07/07/2024 1:17:21 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Science Magazine reports that six artifacts discovered in 2020 near the shore of Lake Xiada Co in western Tibet have been identified as stone sewing needles by Yun Chen of Sichuan University and her colleagues. The objects, thought to be about 9,000 years old based upon the radiocarbon dating of charcoal fragments and animal bones found with them, are pointed at one end and have a hole in the other. Two of them are intact, and the eyes, or holes, were preserved in four of the needles, which were made of tremolite, serpentine, actinolite, and talc. Examination with ultra-deep-field microscopy and 3-D modeling has shown that Needle 1, which is the longest, widest, and thickest of the objects, has marks characteristic of scraping along its length on all sides. It was then probably ground to produce the tip, and then sharpened with oblique scraping marks. Similar patterns were found on the other artifacts. It took Chen and her colleagues about seven times longer to replicate the stone needles than the process takes when making needles from bone. Ancient Tibetans, Chen reasoned, may have been sewing thicker materials, perhaps to make something like a tent. The researchers also note that traces of red ocher were identified on Needle 6. Critics of the study think the objects may have been used as ornaments, citing the presence of the ocher and the use of soft talc, or to weave fishing nets.
(Excerpt) Read more at archaeology.org ...
Serpentine needle, TibetYun Chen/Sichuan University
They look like they must have been used for some very loose weave material.
Or animal hides, furs, that type of thing?
Seems to me they’d use a broken piece of sharp bone to pierce a hole in a hid or leather before they could get the stone needle through there.
That top one says “Singer”.
Yet, my layabout daughter hasn’t sewn up my pajamas in a week and a half.
“Made in China”
Amazing. Hours and hours of work to make each one.
No TV.
Well, they always made things of good quality. My wife has an old Singer sewing machine that is over a hundred years old and still works well.
Too bad the article didn’t give the sizes.
How did they drill the holes,?..
This proves that the needle came before the haystack.
My mother used to make me shirts (and my sister dresses) out of flour sacks with one of those machines.
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