Yun Chen/Sichuan UniversityThe stone needles were stronger than those made of bone and may have been used to sew material for tents.
While digging along the shores of a Tibetan lake in 2020, archaeologists came upon a number of stone objects. They’ve now identified them as needles — and they believe that they’re the oldest stone sewing needles in the world.
If so, this discovery dramatically changes the timeline of needle history. But not everyone agrees that the stone objects found in Tibet were used for sewing.
Discovering The World’s Oldest Needles
According to a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, archaeologists were digging along the shore of Lake Xiada Co in western Tibet in 2020 when they came across six stone artifacts.
“[W]e were digging methodically with a shovel, and suddenly a member of the team exclaimed, ‘Here is a grinding stone with a hole!’” Yun Chen, the study’s lead author, told All That’s Interesting in an email.
Chun continued: “The first thought when I discovered these needles in the site was surprise and I was shocked by their beauty. They were very different from any other stone artifacts, because their raw materials were rare, we identified it with the naked eye as some kind of nephrite. We all believe that they were unique in the Tibetan Plateau.”
The objects are just over an inch long and have a pointed tip on one end and an eye-like opening on the other. They’re made of made of materials like tremolite, serpentine, actinolite, and talc, and they date back to between 7049 and 6568 B.C.E. The study’s authors believe that they were once used as needles — and thus are possibly the oldest stone sewing needles ever discovered.
Yun Chen/Sichuan UniversityA closer view of the “eye” of one of the needles. Only two of the artifacts are entirely intact.
To see if they could replicate the creation of the needles using ancient methods, the researchers studied Needle 1, which is the longest and thickest of the six specimens (only two of which are intact). Because of deep grooves on its sides, the researchers suspected that it was scraped and then ground into shape. They took slabs of tremolite and obsidian and replicated the scraping, grinding, and drilling process that ancient people would have used.
They found that it was indeed possible to reproduce the stone needles — including with telltale grinding marks — but that the process took much longer than producing softer bone needles. This suggests that ancient people in Tibet may have used the needles for tougher tasks, such as sewing tents, Chen explained.
Traces of red paint on the needles also suggest that they may have had some kind of religious or spiritual significance. Ancient people in Tibet believed that the color red could breathe “life and energy” into stone tools and keep “evil spirits at bay,” as researchers told Science.
However, not everyone agrees that the stone objects are needles.
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Debate Over The Discovery Of The Stone Artifacts
If the Tibetan objects are indeed needles, they would be the oldest stone needles ever discovered. Though bone needles are older (archaeologists previously discovered 50,000-year-old specimens in Denisova Cave in Russia), the earliest stone needles on record date back just 2,700 years
Smithsonian InstitutionThese bone and ivory needles discovered in China are between 23,000 and 30,000 years old.
The development of needles played an important role in human history, as they allowed ancient people to produce durable clothing and shelter, which in turn allowed them to survive in colder environments. And if the Tibetan objects are 9,000-year-old stone needles, then this suggests that ancient people developed more durable needles — possibly for crafting large objects like tents — much earlier than previously known.
However, not everyone is convinced that the objects found in Tibet are needles. As Science reports, researchers unaffiliated with the new study raised some doubts about them. Some believe that the needles are “too blunt” for sewing and have suggested that they were “personal ornaments” instead. Others wonder if the needles were used to construct fishing nets, as they were found near a lake.
That said, Chen told All That’s Interesting that the needles have “use-wear marks” which suggests “practical function.”
Whether or not the stone objects in Tibet were used as needles, their discovery remains an astonishing one. Some 9,000 years ago, ancient people scraped, ground, and drilled these objects. Perhaps they used them to sew something like tents — but perhaps their purpose will remain a mystery.
After reading about the 9,000-year-old stone needles found in Tibet, learn about sky burials, the Tibetan funerary ritual. Or, see how Tibetan monks worked on a sand painting for 2,500 years — only to dismantle it.