Quipu
Quipu, Khipu | |
---|---|
Script type | Other
|
Time period | c. 2600 BC – 17th century (some variants are used today) |
Region | Central Quechua, Puquina |
Related scripts | |
Sister systems | Chinese knots, Wampum |
Quipu (also spelled khipu) are recording devices fashioned from strings historically used by a number of cultures in the region of Andean South America.[1]
A quipu usually consisted of cotton or
Objects that can be identified unambiguously as quipu first appear in the archaeological record of the first millennium AD
Various cultures have used knotted strings unrelated to South American quipu to record information - these include the ancient Chinese, Tibetans, Japanese, and Polynesians.[9][10][11][12][13][14]
Quipu is the
Etymology
Quipu is a Quechua word meaning 'knot' or 'to knot'.[16] The terms quipu and khipu are simply spelling variations on the same word. Quipu is the traditional spelling based on the Spanish orthography, while khipu reflects the recent Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift.
"The khipu were knotted-string devices that were used for recording both statistical and narrative information, most notably by the Inca but also by other peoples of the central Andes from pre-Incaic times, through the colonial and republican eras, and even – in a considerably transformed and attenuated form – down to the present day."
Archaeologist Gary Urton, 2003.[17]
Purpose
Most information recorded on the quipus studied to date by researchers consists of numbers in a decimal system,
Some of the knots, as well as other features, such as color, are thought to represent non-numeric information, which has not been deciphered. It is generally thought that the system did not include phonetic symbols analogous to letters of the alphabet. However, Gary Urton has suggested that the quipus used a binary system which could record phonological or logographic data.[20] His student Manny Medrano has gone further to find quipus that decode to match census data.[21][22]
The lack of a clear link between any indigenous Peruvian languages and the quipus has historically led to the supposition that quipus are not a
Most recently, Sabine Hyland claims to have made the first phonetic decipherment of a quipu, challenging the assumption that quipus do not represent information phonetically. After being contacted by local woman Meche Moreyra Orozco, the head of the Association of Collatinos in Lima, Hyland was granted access to the epistolary quipus of San Juan de Collata. These quipus were exchanged during an 18th-century rebellion against the Spanish government. A combination of color, fiber and ply direction leads to a total of 95 combinations in these quipus, which is within the range of a logosyllabic writing system. Exchanging information about the rebellion through quipus would have prevented the Spanish authorities from understanding the messages if they were intercepted, and the Collata quipus are non-numeric. With the help of local leaders, who described the quipu as "a language of animals", Hyland was able to translate the names of the two ayllus, or family lineages, who received and sent the quipu. The translation relied on phonetic references to the animal fibers and colors of the relevant quipu cords.[25][26]
Numeral system
Part of a series on |
Numeral systems |
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List of numeral systems |
Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher, after having analyzed several hundred quipus, have shown that most information on quipus is numeric, and these numbers can be read. Each cluster of knots is a digit, and there are three main types of knots: simple overhand knots; "long knots", consisting of an overhand knot with one or more additional turns; and figure-eight knots. In the Aschers’ system, a fourth type of knot—figure-eight knot with an extra twist—is referred to as "EE". "EE" Stood for "evolutionary eddicate". A number is represented as a sequence of knot clusters in base 10.[27]
- Powers of ten are shown by position along the string, and this position is aligned between successive strands.
- Digits in positions for 10 and higher powers are represented by clusters of simple knots (e.g., 40 is four simple knots in a row in the "tens" position).
- Digits in the "ones" position are represented by long knots (e.g., 4 is a knot with four turns). Because of the way the knots are tied, the digit 1 cannot be shown this way and is represented in this position by a figure-eight knot.
- Zerois represented by the absence of a knot in the appropriate position.
- Because the ones digit is shown in a distinctive way, it is clear where a number ends. One strand on a quipu can therefore contain several numbers.
For example, if 4s represents four simple knots, 3L represents a long knot with three turns, E represents a figure-eight knot and X represents a space:
- The number 731 would be represented by 7s, 3s, E.
- The number 804 would be represented by 8s, X, 4L.
- The number 107 followed by the number 51 would be represented by 1s, X, 7L, 5s, E.
This reading can be confirmed by a fortunate fact: quipus regularly contain sums in a systematic way. For instance, a cord may contain the sum of the next n cords, and this relationship is repeated throughout the quipu. Sometimes there are sums of sums as well. Such a relationship would be very improbable if the knots were incorrectly read.[3]
Some data items are not numbers but what Ascher and Ascher call number labels. They are still composed of digits, but the resulting number seems to be used as a code, much as we use numbers to identify individuals, places, or things. The Khipu Database Project, for example, decoded that a particular three-number label at the beginning of some quipus may refer to
Other aspects of a quipu could have communicated information as well: color-coding, relative placement of cords, spacing, and the structure of cords and sub-cords.[28]
Literary uses
Some have argued that far more than numeric information is present and that quipus are a
In 2003, while checking the geometric signs that appear on drawings of Inca dresses from the
The August 12, 2005, edition of the journal
Beynon-Davies considers quipus as a sign system and develops an interpretation of their physical structure in terms of the concept of a data system.[33]
Khipu kamayuqkuna (knot makers/keepers, i.e., the former Inca record keepers) supplied colonial administrators with a variety and quantity of information pertaining to censuses, tribute, ritual and calendrical organization, genealogies, and other such matters from Inca times. Performing a number of statistical tests for quipu sample VA 42527, one study led by Alberto Sáez-Rodríguez discovered that the distribution and patterning of S- and Z-knots can organize the information system from a real star map of the Pleiades cluster.[34]
Laura Minelli, a professor of
History
Inca Empire (Tawantin Suyu)
Quipucamayocs (Quechua khipu kamayuq, "khipu-authority"), the accountants of
Quipucamayocs were from a class of people, "males, fifty to sixty",
Spanish invasion
In 1532, the Spanish Empire's conquest of the Andean region began, with several Spanish conquerors making note of the existence of quipus in their written records about the invasion. The earliest known example comes from Hernando Pizarro, the brother of the Spanish military leader Francisco Pizarro, who recorded an encounter that he and his men had in 1533 as they traveled along the royal road from the highlands to the central coast.[28] It was during this journey that they encountered several quipu keepers, later relating that these keepers "untied some of the knots which they had in the deposits section [of the khipu], and they [re-]tied them in another section [of the khipu]."[40][41][42][43]
Christian officials of the Third Council of Lima banned and ordered the burning of some Quipus in 1583 because they were used to record offerings to non-Christian gods and were therefore considered idolatrous objects and an obstacle to religious conversion.[44]
Contemporary social importance
The quipu system operated as both a method of calculation and social organization, regulating regional governance and land use.[45] While evidence for the latter is still under the critical eye of scholars around the world, the very fact that they are kept to this day without any confirmed level of fluent literacy in the system is testament to its historical 'moral authority.'[46] Today, "khipu" is regarded as a powerful symbol of heritage, only 'unfurled' and handled by 'pairs of [contemporary] dignitaries,' as the system and its 'construction embed' modern 'cultural knowledge.'[46] Ceremonies in which they are 'curated, even though they can no longer be read,' is even further support for the case of societal honor and significance associated with the quipu.[46] Even today, 'the knotted cords must be present and displayed when village officers leave or begin service, and draping the cords over the incoming office holders instantiates the moral and political authority of the past.'[46] These examples are indicative of how the quipu system was not only fundamental mathematically and linguistically for the original Inca, but also for cultural preservation of the original empire's descendants.
Tupicocha, Peru
In 1994, the American cultural anthropologist Frank Salomon conducted a study in the Peruvian village of Tupicocha, where quipus are still an important part of the social life of the village.[49] As of 1994, this was the only known village where quipus with a structure similar to pre-Columbian quipus were still used for official local government record-keeping and functions, although the villagers did not associate their quipus with Inca artifacts.[50]
San Cristóbal de Rapaz, Peru
The villagers of San Cristóbal de Rapaz (known as Rapacinos), located in the Province of Oyón, keep a quipu in an old ceremonial building, the Kaha Wayi, that is itself surrounded by a walled architectural complex. Also within the complex is a disused communal storehouse, known as the Pasa Qullqa, which was formerly used to protect and redistribute the local crops, and some Rapacinos believe that the quipu was once a record of this process of collecting and redistributing food.[28] The entire complex was important to the villagers, being "the seat of traditional control over land use, and the centre of communication with the deified mountains who control weather".[47]
In 2004, the archaeologist Renata Peeters (of the
Archaeological investigation
In 1912 anthropologist Leslie Leland Locke published "The Ancient Quipu, A Peruvian Knot Record," American Anthropologist, New Series I4 (1912) 325–332. This was the first work to show how the Inca (Inka) Empire and its predecessor societies used the quipu (Khipu) for mathematical and accounting records in the decimal system.
The archaeologist Gary Urton noted in his 2003 book Signs of the Inka Khipu that he estimated "from my own studies and from the published works of other scholars that there are about 600 extant quipu in public and private collections around the world."[52]
According to the Khipu Database Project[53] undertaken by Harvard University professor Gary Urton and his colleague Carrie Brezine, 751 quipus have been reported to exist across the globe.[failed verification] Their whereabouts range from Europe to North and South America. Most are housed in museums outside of their native countries, but some reside in their native locations under the care of the descendants of those who made the knot records. A table of the largest collections is shown below.
Museum collection | Location | Quipus |
---|---|---|
Ethnological Museum of Berlin | Berlin, Germany | 298[citation needed] |
Museum Five Continents[54] | Munich, Germany | |
Pachacamac[55] | near Lima, Peru | 35 |
Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú[56]
|
Lima, Peru | 35 |
Centro Mallqui[57] | 32 | |
Museo Temple Radicati, National University of San Marcos | Lima, Peru | 26 |
Museo Regional de Ica | Ica, Peru | 25 |
Museo Puruchuco[58] | Ate District, Lima, Peru | 23 |
While patrimonial quipu collections have not been accounted for in this database, their numbers are likely to be unknown. One prominent patrimonial collection held by the Rapazians of Rapaz, Peru, was recently researched by University of Wisconsin–Madison professor, Frank Salomon.[59]
Preservation
Quipus are made of
Quipus are now preserved using techniques that will minimise their future degradation. Museums, archives and special collections have adopted preservation guidelines from textile practices.
Environmental controls are used to monitor and control
Damage can occur during storage. The more accessible the items are during storage, the greater the chance of early detection.
Quipus are also closely monitored for
Conservators in the field of
Even when people have tried to preserve quipus, corrective care may still be required. If quipus are to be conserved close to their place of origin, local camelid or wool fibres in natural colors can be obtained and used to mend breaks and splits in the cords.[64] Rosa Choque Gonzales and Rosalia Choque Gonzales, conservators from southern Peru, worked to conserve the Rapaz patrimonial quipus in the Andean village of Rapaz, Peru. These quipus had undergone repair in the past, so this conservator team used new local camelid and wool fibers to spin around the area under repair in a similar fashion to the earlier repairs found on the quipu.[64]
When Gary Urton, professor of Anthropology at Harvard, was asked "Are they [quipus] fragile?", he answered, "some of them are, and you can't touch them – they would break or turn into dust. Many are quite well preserved, and you can actually study them without doing them any harm. Of course, any time you touch an ancient fabric like that, you're doing some damage, but these strings are generally quite durable."[65]
Fictional portrayals
- The feature film Dora and the Lost City of Gold, which premiered in 2019, features a stone quipu which the title character Dora "reads" by touching to provide the protagonists a clue to finding the treasure at the climax of the story.
- Chapter 9 of the book Patrick O’Brianfeatures a message communicated using quipus.
- The characters in the TV series See are blind, and so use strings with knots in them as a way to send messages.
- The book The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland includes the use of quipus by witches as a means to navigate the complex algorithms of time travel.
- The character Amelie prominently wears a quipu in the video game Death Stranding. The game also features a device heavily inspired by the Quipu, called the Q-Pid.
- An episode in season 4 of the gag anime Teekyu features a quipu being used by Marimo to subdue a belligerent Tomarin.
- In This Is How You Lose the Time War, one of the letters composed by "Blue" is hidden as a "knot code" in a crocheted cloth sample in pre-Columbian Peru.
- In the book Ammonite (novel) by Nicola Griffith, the women of Jeep use knotted message cords, which are read by touch, to communicate over large distances.
- In the television series Earth: Final Conflict, a quipu (and the Nazca Lines) is used as plot devices in the fifth episode of the third season.
References
Footnotes
- New York Times. Retrieved January 8, 2016.
- ^ D'altroy, Terence N. (2001). 18
- ^ a b c d "Ancient Scripts: Quipu". www.ancientscripts.com.
- ^ Urton, Gary, Carrie Brezine. Harvard University. (2009)
- ^ D'altroy, Terence N. (2001). 16–17
- ^ a b Urton, Gary. (2011). "Tying the Archive in Knots, or: Dying to Get into the Archive in Ancient Peru
- S2CID 161448364.
- ISBN 978-0521197793.
- ^ "平成29年度 琉球大学附属図書館・琉球大学博物館(風樹館)企画展 石垣市制施行70周年記念企画展". www.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp. Archived from the original on 2021-06-04. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^
"Das Arithmeum »Frühere Veranstaltungen» Warazan – Datenspeicher aus Stroh". 2006-02-06. Archived from the original on 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
Dank der Bemühungen von Professor Kurayoshi Takara von der Ryûkyû-Universität in Japan gelangte das Arithmeum in den Besitz von äußerst seltenen japanischen Rechenhilfsmitteln, den 'Warazan'. Übersetzt bedeutet das: 'rechnen mit Stroh'.
- ^ "Ancient Chinese Version Of Quipu -Tradition Of Tying Knots Dates Back To Antiquity". MessageToEagle.com. 2017-03-15. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ "新唐書/卷216上" [New book of Tang]. Wikisource. Archived from the original on 14 July 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
- ^ Quipu, page 99: " [...] one can use the phrase chieh sheng chi shih, which means 'the memorandum or record of knotted cords,' to refer to how Chinese writing evolved before characters were invented."
- ^
Goetzfridt, Nicholas J. (20 September 2007). "Polynesia". Pacific Ethnomathematics: A Bibliographic Study. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780824874643. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
[Elsdon] Best focuses on the use of knots (or quipus - a word he says originates from Peru, where knots were used similarly to Aotearoa/New Zealand, Hawaiʻi, and other parts of the Pacific) for tallying accounts, quantities of food, and conveying messages.
- ^ "quipu". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
- ^ Urton 2003. p. 1.
- ^ Urton 2003. pp. 1–2.
- ISBN 978-0-88029-595-6.
- JSTOR 26403946.
- ^ Urton 2003.
- ^ Radsken, Jill (25 August 2017). "A student mines voices from the Incan past". Harvard Gazette.
- .
- ^ a b Adams, Mark (12 July 2011). "Questioning the Inca Paradox: Maybe the pre-Columbian civilization did have writing?". Slate Magazine.
- JSTOR j.ctv3t5r28.7.
- ^ Alex, Bridget (4 January 2019). "The Inka Empire Recorded Their World In Knotted Cords Called Khipu". Discover.
- ^ Hyland, Sabine (11 November 2017). "Unraveling an Ancient Code Written in Strings". Scientific American.
- ^ "Quipu" (2012)
- ^ a b c Locke, 1912
- ^ D'altroy, Terrence N. "The Incas." 234–235
- ^ "Fernando Murillo de la Serda. Carta sobre los caracteres, 1589". 10 June 2009. Archived from the original on 28 June 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-88029-595-6.
- S2CID 40704823.
- .
- ^ Saez-Rodríguez, Alberto (2012). "An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac (Perú)". Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemática. 5 (1): 62–88.
- S2CID 161645381.
- ^ "Talking Knots of the Inka". Archaeology Magazine Archive. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
- ^ Domenici, Viviano and Davide, 1996
- ISBN 978-0-88029-595-6.
- ISBN 978-0-88029-595-6.
- ^ Urton 2003. p. 3.
- ^ A los Señores Oydores de la Audiencia Real de Su Magestad. In Informaciones sobre el antiguo Perú, edited by Horacio H. Urteaga, 16–180. Colección de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú 3 (Second Series). Lima: Imprenta y Librería Sanmartí, pages 175 and 178
- ^ Letter from Hernando Pizarro to the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo, November 1533
- ^ Markham, Clements R., Francisco De Xerez, Miguel De Estete, Hernando Pizarro, and Pedro Sancho. Reports on the Discovery of Peru. London: Printed for the Hakluyt Society, 1872
- ISBN 0822333902
- ^ Niles, Susan A. (2007). Considering Quipus: Andean Knotted String Records in Analytical Context. 92–93
- ^ a b c d Niles, Susan A. (2007). 93
- ^ a b Peters and Salomon 2006/2007. p. 41.
- ^ a b D'Altroy, Terence N. (2001). 234–235
- ^ Domenici, 1996
- ^ Salomon 2004
- ^ Peters and Salomon 2006/2007. pp. 41–44.
- ^ Urton 2003. p. 2.
- ^ "Khipu Database Project". Archived from the original on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 2007-06-15.
- ^ "State Museum of Ethnography".
- ^ "Museo de Pachacamac". Archived from the original on 2001-03-11.
- ^ "Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia". Archived from the original on 2005-03-12.
- ^ "Centro Mallqui Cultura". Archived from the original on 2007-08-08.
- ^ "Museo Puruchuco". Archived from the original on 2000-09-30.
- ^ Salomon, F (2004).
- OCLC 486224.
- ^ a b Canadian Conservation Institute (11 May 2018). "Caring for textiles and costumes – Preventive conservation guidelines for collections". Preventive conservation guidelines for collections. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
- ^ a b "Care and conservation of costume and textiles". Conservation Register. Archived from the original on 2011-07-25.
- JSTOR 3179387.
- ^ a b c Salomon, Frank; Peters, Renata (2007). Governance and Conservation of the Rapaz Khipu Patrimony.. Archaeology International #10.
- ^ "Conversations String Theorist". Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2005-10-21.
- (PDF) on 2011-08-18. Retrieved 2009-12-24.
Bibliography
- Adrien, Kenneth (2001). Andean Worlds: Indigenous History, Culture and Consciousness. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-2359-0.
- The Archaeological Institute of America (November–December 2005). "Conversations: String Theorist". Archaeology. 58 (6). ISSN 0003-8113. Archived from the originalon 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2005-10-21.
- Ascher, Marcia; Ascher, Robert (1978). Code of the Quipu: Databook. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ASIN B0006X3SV4.
- ISBN 978-0-472-09325-0.
- Brokaw, Galen (2010). A History of the Khipu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-19779-3.
- ISSN 1059-1028.
- D'Altroy, Terrence N. (2001). The Incas. Victoria, Australia: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-0-631-17677-0.
- Day, Cyrus Lawrence (1967). Quipus and witches' knots; the role of the knot in primitive and ancient cultures. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. OCLC 1446690.
- Hyland, Sabine (2017). "Writing with Twisted Cords: The Inscriptive Capacity of Andean Khipus". Current Anthropology. 58 (3): 412–419. S2CID 164759609. Web access
- Niles, Susan A. (2007). "Considering Quipus: Andean Knotted String Records in Analytical Context". Reviews in Anthropology. 36. Taylor and Francis: 85–102. S2CID 161544309.
- Nordenskiold, Erland (1925). The Secret of the Peruvian Quipus. OCLC 2887018.
- Peters, Renata; Salomon, Frank (2006–2007). "Patrimony and partnership: conserving the khipu legacy of Rapaz, Peru". Archaeology International. London: UCL Institute of Archaeology. pp. 41–44. ISSN 1463-1725.
- Piechota, Dennis (1978). "Storage Containerization Archaeological Textile Collections". Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. 18 (1): 10–18. JSTOR 3179387.
- Saez-Rodríguez, A. (2012). An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac (Perú). Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemática. 5(1), 62–88.
- Salomon, Frank (2001). "How an Andean 'Writing Without Words' Works". Current Anthropology. 42 (1): 1–27. S2CID 224799182.
- Salomon, Frank (2004). The Cord Keepers: Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village. Durham: Duke University Press. OCLC 54929904.
- Salomon, Frank; Peters, Renata (31 March 2007). "Governance and Conservation of the Rapaz Khipu Patrimony". Paper Delivered at Interdisciplinary Workshop on Intangible Heritage. Collaboration of Carrie Brezine, Gino de las Casas Ríos, Víctor Falcón Huayta, Rosa Choque Gonzales, and Rosalía Choque Gonzales. Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices, Urbana-Champaign, IL.
- JSTOR 483319.
- Urton, Gary (2003). Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records. Austin: University of Texas Press. OCLC 50323023.
- Urton, Gary; Carrie Brezine (2003–2004). "The Khipu Database Project". Archived from the original on April 27, 2006.
- Urton, Gary (2011). "Tying the Archive in Knots, or: Dying to get into the Archive in Ancient Peru". Archives and Records. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Groupe. ISSN 0037-9816.
- Urton, Gary. 2017. Inka history in knots. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
- Domenici, Davide (1996). "Talking Knots of the Inka". Archaeology. 49 (6): 13–24.
- Locke, Leland (1912). "The Ancient Quipu, a Peruvian Knot Record". American Anthropologist. 14 (2): 325–332. .
- National Geographic (1996). "Accounting Cords". National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
External links
This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. (February 2024) |
- The Khipu Field Guide (Khipu drawings and investigations from a large Khipu database)
- Quipu: A Modern Mystery
- Untangling the Mystery of the Inca
- Urton, Gary (1998). "From Knots to Narratives: Reconstructing the Art of Historical Record Keeping in the Andes from Spanish Transcriptions of Inka Khipus". Ethnohistory. 45 (3): 409–438. JSTOR 483319.
- High in the Andes, Keeping an Incan Mystery Alive (New York Times, August 16, 2010)
- The Khipu of San Cristobal de Rapaz
Discovery of "Puruchuco" toponym
- Experts 'decipher' Inca strings – BBC
- "Peruvian 'writing' system goes back 5,000 years". Archived from the original on July 22, 2005. Retrieved January 22, 2018. – MSNBC
- American Textile History Museum
- American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works