A study led by McKenna Litynski, a recent Ph.D. graduate in anthropology and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, confirms that ancient needles and awls enabled humans to survive in cold climates and shows these tools served a variety of purposes beyond clothing production, from medicine to ceremony.
Some 100,000 years ago, humans began to expand around the globe, including into some of the world’s coldest environments. Scholars have long hypothesized that this remarkable expansion was made possible by a profoundly humble technology: the bone sewing needle.
The theory suggests that the invention of the needle allowed early humans to make tailored leather clothing which, in turn, allowed survival in frigid climates. While plausible, the theory has been difficult to verify.
However, Litynski led a quantitative study that provides strong support for the theory. Drawing on hundreds of ethnographic documents from the 18th through 20th centuries in North America, she analyzed patterns of needle and awl use.
Her article , which was co-written by UW Department of Anthropology Professors Sean Field and Randy Haas and is published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE , shows that clothing production is the most common activity associated with sewing needles and awls.
Statistical modeling also revealed that mentions of these tools increase significantly in colder environments, confirming the role of sewing technology in thermoregulation and survival.
The study also uncovered a surprising pattern in the data. While manufacturing clothing accounted for 14 percent of observations, needles and awls were widely used for other purposes, including medical suturing, fishing, tattooing, basketry and ceremonial activities, meaning needles and awls are not limited to cold environments.
These findings demonstrate that the sewing needle not only helped humans survive in extreme climates, but also played a versatile role in daily life and cultural practices.
The research provides new insight into how environmental and social factors shaped human behavior and tool use, offering archaeologists a richer understanding of one of the most common artifact types in the perishable archaeological record.
“Ultimately, it is not only the tools themselves that are significant, but also the people who once used these objects in the past,” Litynski says. “It is through examining needles and awls from different lenses that archaeologists like me can reveal their capacity to unravel the broader story of human ingenuity, adaptability and cultural evolution over the last several thousands of years and throughout the world.”
Litynski is an archaeologist with research interests in zooarchaeology, environmental archaeology, hunter-gatherers and experimental archaeology. To learn more about her research, email her at mlitynsk@uwyo.edu .
PLOS One
Meta-analysis
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Ethnographic meta-analysis shows that thermoregulation activities predict needle and awl use in North America
5-Mar-2026