Spent 6 weeks trying to figure out what a bone needle was for, then a park ranger in Mesa Verde pointed at my own jacket | Archaeology Discoveries - Rigidtalk
Spent 6 weeks trying to figure out what a bone needle was for, then a park ranger in Mesa Verde pointed at my own jacket
Last spring I found this tiny bone needle in a rockshelter in southwest Colorado, about 4 inches long with a hole drilled through one end, and I was sure it was some kind of fishing tool. I read every paper I could find, drove to two museums, and even emailed a professor in Boulder, and 6 weeks later I still had nothing solid. Then I showed a photo to a park ranger friend in Mesa Verde and she just laughed and said look at the stitching on your jacket. The needle was for making cordage and sewing hides, basically the same job as the needle in my closet, and I felt so dumb. The drill hole was tiny too, only about 2 millimeters, which means they had something even finer to make that hole in the first place. Has anyone else chased a big theory for weeks only to get humbled by something sitting right in front of them?