At its peak in the 15th century, the Inca Empire was the largest on earth — home to some 10 million people living along the Andes from modern-day Ecuador to Chile. Conquered by the Spanish in 1572, the Inca left behind an impressive legacy of roads, bridges, waterworks and other structures, including the royal estate of Machu Picchu —but no written records.
Instead, the Inca used knotted cords, known as “khipus,” to record information. Used by many Andean cultures from as early as the first millennium, most khipus consist of one primary cord with multiple pendant cords attached. Cords were spun from cotton or camelid fiber, plied in either a S or Z twist, and sometimes dyed. Complex knots (single, multiple hitches or figure-eight) were tied at regular intervals. The length, twist and color of the cords, and the type and position of the knots each had meaning.
Researchers agree that khipus were decimal numerical devices: Like other Andean civilizations, Incans used them to record tribute payments from villages and tribes scattered across their vast empire. Spanish witnesses also claimed that khipus encoded historical narratives, biographies and letters, though researchers today have not reliably identified any ancient khipu as a narrative text.
This well-preserved khipu from the Cotsen Textile Collection was made around the time of the Spanish conquest. Its impressive size helps demonstrate the extensive amount of complex data that could be captured in these devices.
Machu Picchu, Peru. © DoraDalton/iStock.com.
