The secret of the prehistoric clothing that helped the first settlers in North America survive
Fine sewing needles made from the bones of small animals such as foxes and mountain lions, which hunters used to make tailored garments during the last Ice Age, have been discovered in Wyoming
12,900 years ago, in the north of what is now the United States, a mammoth was killed by a group of humans who had already begun to colonize America at the end of the Paleolithic period. The vestiges of the beastly scene were etched in stone at the archaeological site of La Prele—discovered in 1986 in the state of Wyoming—as well as the settlement of those who killed the animal. At that place, the Paleoindian hunter-gatherers of those high latitudes not only dedicated themselves to capturing animals to eat their meat. They also used their pelts to make clothes, tailored to their bodies, which helped them tolerate the frigid climate of that period. A group of researchers from the University of Wyoming has managed to date the bone needles they used to sew those clothes and have identified the type of animal from which those tools came.
