Stone to Silicon

Tools & manufacturing · c. 52,000 years ago

Eyed needle

A bone needle with an eye makes fitted, layered clothing.

A bone needle from Denisova Cave, Siberia, is about 50,000 years old. Tailored clothing let people endure Ice Age winters in northern Eurasia.

See it in the living treeWikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

What it led to 1

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)