Whether it was a genuine hunting tool associated with this woman or with the person who buried her, or an object made for the burial, is uncertain.

The eyed needle deserves extended attention.

Sewing needles of this type require precise manufacture — drilling a fine hole through a small bone implement without breaking it is a demanding craft.

The needle implies the existence of thread or sinew, of worked hides, of someone with the skill to produce what modern archaeology would call tailored clothing.

The technology of sewn, fitted clothing is thought to have been essential to human survival in the cold environments of the late Pleistocene, and evidence for this technology from this period is rare.

The Buhl needle is among the earliest clearly identified sewing needles from North America.