Needle made of mammoth tusk

Needles are a rare find at Ice Age archeological sites. They were made from a durable but fragile material – mammoth tusk. To create needle the tusks were split into small pieces, from which small objects were carved out, then ground and polished. It was probably not difficult to make needles, because we do not know any of examples of repaired needles that were broken: they were simply discarded. Often eyelet hole was made in the needles, but sometimes a groove was cut for tying thread or thin cord. Animal sinew could be used ss the thread. Possibly filaments from fibrous plants were already used as well. The needles were fragile. This particular needle lacks both a sharp tip and a thread attachment point. The size of the needle suggests that it was probably used to sew the hides of large animals (deer, horse, bear) and thinner hides of smaller animals (arctic fox, hare, squirrel).
This is a rare find at the sites of the Upper Paleolithic period in Northern Eurasia.