General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

khipu

Patents

N/A

General Description

cord

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

42.0 cm

Width

35.0 cm

Height

N/A

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Mathematics

Category

Calculating devices

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

Period

this example: late 20th century

Canada

Previously on display in the Computer Exhibit at the Canada Science & Technology Museum.

Function

Khipu are recording devices made of many-coloured woven & knotted strings used by the pre-conquest Inca of Peru for record keeping.

Technical

A modern version or replica of the Inca khipu, a recording device invented by South American native peoples in pre-Incan times & subsequently used by the Inca themselves for accounting & census records & perhaps as a system of writing. A khipu consists of a primary cord to which many pendant strings were attached that themselves could have subsidiary pendants. Carefully spaced knots were tied in the pendant strings. Single knots marked tens, hundreds, thousands & tens of thousands; multi-looped "long knots" recorded the integers 2 through 9 (the integer corresponding to the number of turns in the knot); & a figure-of-eight knot close to the loose end of a pendant cord indicated the integer 1 (Ref. 5). Khipu have long been viewed as mnemonic devices (personalized memorization aids or maybe simple abacuses. In the 1920s it was shown that the numerical khipu were hierarchical, decimal arrays for recording numbers but these rules did not fit all of the estimated 600 khipu that had survived destruction by the Spanish conquerors of the Incan empire. The latter believed that some khipu contained historical narratives, religious myths & literature. In recent years some scholars have suggested that the simple accounting devices evolved into a writing system, a kind of three dimensional system unlike any other on Earth. In addition to the number & placement of the knots, their orientation, the type of material used, and the colour, spin & ply direction of the strings may convey written information. Harvard anthropologist Gary Urton argues that all these factors form a sort of binary code. As of yet no one has been able to read or translate a non-numerical khipu so the theory that some are a form of writing remains untested (Ref. 1).

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

none

Missing

appears complete

Finish

natural buff coloured

Decoration

N/A