BONE NEEDLE

3D Model

Many of the daily experiences of the people who inhabited Russell Cave were dictated by gender roles. This means certain tasks were carried out depending on if you were a man or a woman. One of the duties of the women who inhabited this site deals in textile production. They would use well-made bone needles like this one to sew products such as leather bags made of deerskins. Like needles today, these have an eye at one end through which animal sinew or guts would be threaded. These bone pins appear throughout all excavated layers at the rock shelter, but they are particularly abundant during the Woodland stage of the sites occupation.