June 28, 2024 This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlightedthe following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by University of Sydney A team of researchers led by an archaeologist at the University of Sydney are the first to suggest that eyed needles were a new technological innovation used to adorn clothing for social and cultural purposes, marking the major shift from clothes as protection to clothes as an expression of identity. "Eyed needle tools are an important development in prehistory because they document a transition in the function of clothing from utilitarian to social purposes," says Dr.
Ian Gilligan, Honorary Associate in the discipline of Archaeology at the University of Sydney. From stone tools that prepared animal skins for humans to use as thermal insulation , to the advent of bone awls and eyed needles to create fitted and adorned garments, why did we start to dress to express ourselves and to impress others? Dr. Gilligan and his co-authors reinterpret the evidence of recent discoveries in the development of clothing in their new Science Advances paper , "Paleolithic eyed needles and the evolution of dress.
" "Why do we wear clothes? We assume that it's part of being human, but once you look at different cultures , you realize that people existed and functioned perfectly adequately in society without clothes," Dr.
