{{Short description|Andean record-keeping system using knotted cords}} {{about|the Andean method of record keeping|other uses|quipu (disambiguation)}} {{use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox Writing system | time = {{circa|2600 BCE|1900 CE}} | region = Central Andes * Caral–Supe civilization * Paracas culture * Wari culture * Inca | name = Quipu | altname = Khipu | sample = Inca Quipu.jpg | caption = An Inca <em>quipu</em>, from the Larco Museum in Lima, Peru. | ipa-note = none }} [[File:Peru, Inca Period, 15th-16th Century - Inka Khipu (Fiber Recording Device) - 1940.469 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|thumb|259x259px|''Quipu'' in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio.]] '''''Quipu''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|iː|p|uː}} {{respell|KEE|poo}}), also spelled '''''khipu''''' ({{Langx|quy|kipu}}, {{IPA|quy|ˈkipu|}}; {{Langx|quz|khipu}}, {{IPA|quz|kʰipu|}}), are record-keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire.<ref name=":6" />
A ''quipu'' usually consists of cotton or camelid fiber cords, and contains categorized information based on dimensions like color, order, and number.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Pärssinen |first=Martti |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vrsTAQAAIAAJ |title=Tawantinsuyu: The Inca State and Its Political Organization |publisher=SHS |year=1992 |isbn=978-951-8915-62-4 |pages=26–51}}</ref> The Inca, in particular, used knots tied in a decimal positional system to store numbers and other values in ''quipu'' cords. Depending on use and the amount of information stored, ''quipus'' can have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords.
Objects which can unambiguously be identified as ''quipus'' first appear in the archaeological record during the 1st millennium CE,<ref name="dying">{{harvnb|Urton|2011}}</ref> likely attributable to the Wari Empire.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> ''Quipus'' subsequently played a key part in the administration of the Kingdom of Cusco of the 13th to 15th centuries, and later of the Inca Empire (1438–1533), flourishing across the Andes from {{circa|1100}} to 1532. Inca administration used ''quipus'' extensively for a variety of uses: monitoring tax obligations, collecting census records, keeping calendrical information,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Urton |first=Gary |date=2001 |title=A Calendrical and Demographic Tomb Text from Northern Peru |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/972052 |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=127–147 |doi=10.2307/972052 |jstor=972052 |issn=1045-6635}}</ref> military organization,<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=D'Altroy |first=Terence N. |title=The Incas |date=2009 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-1-4051-1676-3 |edition=Nachdr. |series=The peoples of America |location=Malden, Mass. Oxford}}</ref> and potentially for recording simple and stereotyped historical "annales".<ref name=":0" />
It is not known exactly how many intact ''quipus'' still remain, as many were deposited in ancient mausoleums<ref name="dying" /> or later destroyed by the Spanish. However, a recent survey of both museum and private collection inventories places the total number of known extant pre-Columbian ''quipus'' at just under 1,400.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Manuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veBGEAAAQBAJ |title=Quipus: Mil años de historia anudada en los Andes y su futuro digital |date=2021-10-11 |publisher=Planeta Perú |isbn=978-612-319-672-1 |language=es}}</ref>
After the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire, ''quipus'' were slowly replaced by European writing and numeral systems. Many ''quipus'' were identified as idolatrous and destroyed, but some Spaniards promoted the adaptation of the ''quipu'' recording system to the needs of the colonial administration, and some priests advocated the use of ''quipus'' for ecclesiastical purposes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brokaw |first=Galen |title=A History of the Khipu |year=2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521197793}}</ref> In some cases ''quipu'' technology was even fused with writing to form hybrid objects called ''quipu'' boards, which were often used to track religious duties.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hyland |first1=Sabine |last2=Ware |first2=Gene A. |last3=Clark |first3=Madison |date=2014 |title=Knot Direction in a Khipu/Alphabetic Text from the Central Andes |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S1045663500011603/type/journal_article |journal=Latin American Antiquity |language=en |volume=25 |issue=2 |pages=189–197 |doi=10.7183/1045-6635.25.2.189 |issn=1045-6635}}</ref> Today, ''quipus'' continue to serve as important items in several modern Andean villages.<ref name=":5" />
Various other cultures have used knotted strings, unrelated to Andean ''quipus,'' to record information, such as Chinese knotting, also practiced by Tibetans, Japanese, and Polynesians.<ref>{{Cite web |lang=zh|script-title=zh: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 |url=https://www.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/library/digia/tenji/tenji2017/05.html |access-date= 2021-06-04 |website=www.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp |archive-date=2021-06-04 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210604111656/https://www.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/library/digia/tenji/tenji2017/05.html |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2000-06-30 |website=Das Arithmeum |title=Warazan – Datenspeicher aus Stroh |url=http://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/de/events/20 |access-date=2021-06-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206194818/http://www.arithmeum.uni-bonn.de/de/events/20 |archive-date=2006-02-06 |lang=de |quote=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'.}}</ref><ref name="Tubo I">{{cite web|script-title=zh:新唐書/卷216上 |trans-title= New book of Tang |url= https://zh.wikisource.org/zh/新唐書/卷216上 |website=Wikisource|language=zh}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLbYY804e90C |title=Quipu |first=Arthur |last=Sze |publisher=Copper Canyon Press |date=2013 |isbn=9781619321038 |page=99 |quote=[...] 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.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Goetzfridt |first=Nicholas J. |date=20 September 2007 |chapter=Polynesia |title=Pacific Ethnomathematics: A Bibliographic Study |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Y4BEAAAQBAJ |location=Honolulu |publisher=University of Hawaiʻi Press |page=26 |isbn=9780824874643 |quote=[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.}}</ref>
== Etymology == The word ''quipu'' is derived from a Quechua word meaning 'knot'.<ref>Urton 2003. p. 1.</ref> The terms ''quipu'' and ''khipu'' are spelling variations on the same word. ''Quipu'' is the traditional spelling based on the Spanish orthography, while ''khipu'' reflects the Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift. {{tlit|qu|Khipu}} (pronounced {{IPA|quz|ˈkʰipu|}}) comes from Cusco Quechua, while many other Quechua varieties use the term {{tlit|qu|kipu}}. The hispanicized spelling of ''quipu'' is the form most commonly used in both Spanish and English.<ref>{{OED|quipu|id=156742}}</ref>
== Purpose == {{Quote box |width = 30em |border = 1px |align = right |bgcolor = #c6dbf7 |fontsize = 85% |title_bg = |title_fnt = |title = |quote="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." |salign = right |source = Archaeologist Gary Urton, 2003.<ref>Urton 2003. pp. 1–2.</ref> }} [[File:Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1936 facsimile) p360.png|thumb|A ''quipucamayoc'' depicted in ''El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno''. A ''yupana'', an Inca calculating device, is also visible in the lower left.]]
''Quipus'' held information, decipherable by officials called ''quipucamayocs'' ({{Langx|quz|khipu kamayuq|4=''khipu'' specialist}}, {{IPA|qu|ˈkʰipu kaˈmajoχ|}}), classified in various categories, narrated from the most important to the least important category, according to color, number, and order.<ref name=":0" />
To date, most of the information recorded on the ''quipus'' studied by researchers consists of numbers in a decimal system,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ordish, George |author2=Hyams, Edward |title=The last of the Incas: the rise and fall of an American empire |publisher=Barnes & Noble |location=New York |year=1996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/80 80] |isbn=978-0-88029-595-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/80 }}</ref> such as "Indian chiefs ascertain[ing] which province had lost more than another and balanc[ing] the losses between them" after the Spanish invasion.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Benson |first1=E. |title=The Quipu: "Written" Texts in Ancient Peru |journal=The Princeton University Library Chronicle |date=1975 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=11–23|doi=10.2307/26403946 |jstor=26403946 }}</ref> In the early years of the Spanish conquest of Peru, Spanish officials often relied on the ''quipus'' to settle disputes over local tribute payments or goods production. The ''quipucamayocs'' could be summoned to court, where their bookkeeping was recognised as valid documentation of past payments.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}
Some knots — as well as other features, such as color, fiber type, cord attachments, etc. — are thought to compose an undeciphered non-numeric information system. The lack of a clear link between any indigenous Andean languages and the ''quipus'' has historically led to the supposition that ''quipus'' are not a glottographic writing system and have no phonetic referent.<ref name="Adams11">{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Mark |date=12 July 2011 |title=Questioning the Inca Paradox: Maybe the pre-Columbian civilization did have writing? |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/07/inca-paradox-maybe-the-pre-columbian-civilization-did-have-writing.html |website=Slate Magazine |language=en |access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref> However, anthropologist Gary Urton has suggested that the ''quipus'' used a binary system that could record phonological or logographic data.<ref>Urton 2003.</ref> According to Martti Pärssinen, ''quipucamayocs'' would learn specific oral texts, which in relation to the basic information contained in ''quipu'', and pictorial representations, often painted on quiru vessels, similar to Aztec pictograms, related simple "episodes".<ref name=":0" /> Frank Salomon, meanwhile, has argued that ''quipus'' are actually a semasiographic language, a system of representative symbols{{snd}}such as music notation or numerals{{snd}}that relay information but are not directly related to the speech sounds of a particular language,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salomon |first1=Frank |title=Writing as Material Practice |date=2013 |publisher=Ubiquity Press |isbn=9781909188242 |pages=15–44 |chapter=The Twisting Paths of Recall: Khipu (Andean cord notation) as artifact |jstor=j.ctv3t5r28.7}}</ref> like ideograms and proto-writing.
In 2011, a potential match between six colonial-era Santa Valley Quipus and a Spanish colonial document from the same region was identified.<ref name="dying" /> Researchers believe this possible ''quipu''-document match is the strongest Rosetta Stone-like connection currently known, which could offer key clues needed to unlock the full extent of the quipu code. Subsequent studies have built on the proposed ''quipu''-document connection, suggesting that the binary manner by which cords can be attached to the main body of the six ''quipus'' may encode moiety affiliation,<ref>{{cite web |last=Radsken |first=Jill |date=25 August 2017 |title=A student mines voices from the Incan past |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/08/a-students-mines-voices-from-the-incan-past/ |website=Harvard Gazette}}</ref><ref name=":9">{{cite journal |last1=Medrano |first1=Manuel |last2=Urton |first2=Gary |date=1 January 2018 |title=Toward the Decipherment of a Set of Mid-Colonial Khipus from the Santa Valley, Coastal Peru |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=1–23 |doi=10.1215/00141801-4260638}}</ref> and uncovering detailed Andean social structures encoded within the six ''quipus''.<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal |last=FitzPatrick |first=Mackinley |date=2024-10-01 |title=New Insights on Cord Attachment and Social Hierarchy in Six Khipus from the Santa Valley, Peru |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/ethnohistory/article-abstract/71/4/443/391504/New-Insights-on-Cord-Attachment-and-Social?redirectedFrom=fulltext |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=443–469 |doi=10.1215/00141801-11266328 |issn=0014-1801|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Sabine Hyland claims to have made the first phonetic decipherment through her analysis of epistolary ''quipus'' from San Juan de Collata, Peru'','' challenging the assumption that ''quipus'' do not represent information phonetically.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hyland |first=Sabine |date=2017 |title=Writing with Twisted Cords: The Inscriptive Capacity of Andean Khipus |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/691682 |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=412–419 |doi=10.1086/691682 |issn=0011-3204|hdl=10023/12326 |hdl-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> However, the ''quipus'' in question date to the colonial period and are believed to have been exchanged during an 18th-century rebellion against the Spanish government, suggesting that their encoding may have been influenced by the introduction of European writing systems. With the help of local leaders, Hyland argues that the names of the two ''ayllus'', or family lineages, who received and sent the ''quipus'' can be translated using phonetic references to the animal fibers and colors of the relevant quipu cords.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Alex |first=Bridget |date=4 January 2019 |title=The Inka Empire Recorded Their World In Knotted Cords Called Khipu |url=http://discovermagazine.com/2017/oct/unraveling-a-secret |website=Discover |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108023011/http://discovermagazine.com/2017/oct/unraveling-a-secret |archive-date=8 November 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hyland |first=Sabine |date=11 November 2017 |title=Unraveling an Ancient Code Written in Strings |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/unraveling-an-ancient-code-written-in-strings/ |website=Scientific American |access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref>
=== Numeric usage === While Spanish colonial chroniclers, such as Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, hinted at the numerical system of ''quipus'', it is Leslie Leland Locke who is often credited with first demonstrating that many ''quipus'' encode numbers using a base-10 positional notation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Locke |first=L. Leland |date=1912 |title=The Ancient Quipu, a Peruvian Knot Record |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/659935 |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=325–332 |doi=10.1525/aa.1912.14.2.02a00070 |jstor=659935 |issn=0002-7294}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Locke |first=Leslie Leland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7MgvAAAAYAAJ |title=The Ancient Quipu Or Peruvian Knot Record |date=1923 |publisher=American Museum of Natural History |language=en}}</ref> Starting in the late 1960's and building on Locke's foundational work, Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher analyzed several hundred ''quipus'', revealing that most of the information recorded by ''quipu'' knots is numerical and can be systematically interpreted.{{Numeral systems}} Most ''quipus'' use 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. The Aschers also identified a fourth, and less common, type of knot—a figure-eight knot with an extra twist—which they refer to as an "EE" knot. On a given ''quipu'' cord, knots are grouped into clusters. Each cluster is tied at specific registers, or lengths, along the cord. These knot clusters represent digits in a base-10 number system.<ref>"Quipu" (2012)</ref> The units, or "ones" position is commonly tied at the bottom of a cord, followed by a space above it, then the "tens" position, then another space, then hundreds position, and so on. In other words: * Powers of ten are denoted by position along the string, and this position is often 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 2–9 in the "ones" position are represented by long knots (e.g., 4 is a knot with four turns), and the digit 1 in the "ones" position is represented by a figure-eight knot. * Zero is represented by the absence of a knot in the appropriate position.
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 1493 would be represented by 1s, 4s, 9s, 3L. Since the ones position on ''quipu'' cords are shown in a distinctive way (i.e., using long knots and figure-eight knots), it is usually clear where a number ends. Thus, it is possible that a single ''quipu'' cord could contain several numbers. For example: * The number 107 followed by the number 51 would be represented by 1s, X, 7L, 5s, E.
The "reading" of ''quipu'' knots as numbers in the way outlined above is bolstered by the fact that ''quipus'' regularly contain sums in systematic ways.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ascher |first=Marcia |title=Code of the Quipu: Databook |last2=Ascher |first2=Robert |date=1978 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |year= |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Medrano |first1=Manuel |last2=Khosla |first2=Ashok |date=2024-05-06 |title=How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code? |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-antiquity/article/how-can-data-science-contribute-to-understanding-the-khipu-code/E2D0E68A0515F3F9582A23C63693F4CE |journal=Latin American Antiquity |volume=36 |issue=2 |language=en |pages=497–516 |doi=10.1017/laq.2024.5 |issn=1045-6635|url-access=subscription }}</ref> For instance, a cord may contain the sum of the next ''n'' cords, with this relationship being repeated throughout the ''quipu''. In other cases, there are even cords which contain sums of sums. Such a relationship would be highly improbable if ''quipu'' knot values were being incorrectly interpreted.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}
Some data items are not numbers but what Ascher and Ascher call ''number labels''.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Ascher |first=Marcia |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/n870zr04d |title=Code of the quipu: a study in media, mathematics, and culture |date=1981 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-09325-0 |language=en}}</ref> They are still composed of digits, but the resulting number seems to be used as a code. For example, Carrie J. Brezine hypothesized that a particular three-number label at the beginning of some ''quipus'' may refer to Puruchuco, similar to a ZIP code.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Urton |first1=Gary |title=Variations in the Expression of Inka Power |last2=Brezine |first2=Carrie J. |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection |year=2007 |editor-last=Burger |editor-first=Richard L. |location=Washington, D.C. |pages=357–384 |chapter=Information Control in the Palace of Puruchuco: An Accounting Hierarchy in a Khipu Archive from Coastal Peru |editor-last2=Morris |editor-first2=Craig |editor-last3=Mendieta |editor-first3=Ramiro Matos}}</ref>
=== Non-numeric usage === Some have argued that far more than numeric information is present and that ''quipus'' are a writing system.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} This would be an especially important discovery as there is no surviving written record of the Inca Empire predating the Spanish invasion.<ref name=":8" />
Making deciphering more complex, the Inca 'kept separate "khipu" for each province, on which a pendant string recorded the number of people belonging to each category.'<ref>D'altroy, Terrence N. "The Incas." 234–235</ref><ref name="suppress">{{cite web |last1=Kupriienko |first1=Serhii |date=10 June 2009 |title=Fernando Murillo de la Serda. Carta sobre los caracteres, 1589 |work=KUPRIENKO |url=http://kuprienko.info/fernando-murillo-de-la-cerda-carta-sobre-los-caracteres-usados-por-los-indios-antes-de-la-conquista-1589/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120628235258/http://kuprienko.info/fernando-murillo-de-la-cerda-carta-sobre-los-caracteres-usados-por-los-indios-antes-de-la-conquista-1589/ |archive-date=28 June 2012}}</ref>
How exactly non-numeric information is encoded is disputed, though scholars are working to collect and analysis khipu data beyond just their knot values, exploring other variables—such as cord twist, color<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clindaniel |first=Jon |date=2019-01-01 |title=Toward a Grammar of the Inka Khipu: Investigating the Production of Non-numerical Signs |url=https://www.academia.edu/98159668/Toward_a_Grammar_of_the_Inka_Khipu_Investigating_the_Production_of_Non_numerical_Signs |journal=PhD Dissertation, Harvard University}}</ref>, fiber, attachment orientation<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":10" />, and knot variations<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Urton |first=Gary |date=1994 |title=A New Twist in an Old Yarn: Variation in Knot Directionality in the Inka Khipus |url=https://www.academia.edu/13452071/A_New_Twist_in_an_Old_Yarn_Variation_in_Knot_Directionality_in_the_Inka_Khipus |journal=Baessler-Archiv Neue Folge |volume=42 |pages=271–305}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hamilton |first=Andrew James |date=2016 |title=New Horizons in Andean Art History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45283274 |journal=Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University |volume=75/76 |pages=42–101 |issn=0032-843X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=FitzPatrick |first=Mackinley |date=2026-03-30 |title=Knot Tricks: What Mathematical Knot Theory Can Reveal about the Structure of Khipu Knot Encoding |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-antiquity/article/abs/knot-tricks-what-mathematical-knot-theory-can-reveal-about-the-structure-of-khipu-knot-encoding/41EA129948DF7555A99F4B11E57C30F5 |journal=Latin American Antiquity |language=en |pages=1–17 |doi=10.1017/laq.2026.10171 |issn=1045-6635}}</ref>—as signifiers of non-numerical data.
Historians Edward Hyams and George Ordish claim, for example, that quipus were recording devices, similar to musical notation, in that the notes on the page present basic information, and the performer would then bring those details to life.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ordish, George |url=https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/84 |title=The last of the Incas: the rise and fall of an American empire |author2=Hyams, Edward |publisher=Barnes & Noble |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-88029-595-6 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/84 84]}}</ref>
A 2005 report in the journal ''Science,'' titled "Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru", may represent the first identification of a ''quipu'' element for a non-numeric concept. The report details a sequence of three figure-eight knots at the start of a ''quipu'' that seems to be a unique signifier. It could be a toponym for the city of Puruchuco (near Lima), or the name of the ''quipu'' keeper who made it, or its subject matter, or even a time designator.<ref name="Urton & Brezine (2005)">{{cite journal|last1=Urton|first1=Gary|last2=Brezine|first2=Carrie J.|title=Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru|journal=Science|date=12 August 2005|volume=309|issue=5737|pages=1065–1067|doi=10.1126/science.1113426|pmid=16099983|bibcode=2005Sci...309.1065U|s2cid=40704823}}</ref>
''Quipucamayocs'' (knot makers/keepers, i.e., the 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. 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Saez-Rodríguez|2012}}</ref>
Laura Minelli, a professor of pre-Columbian studies at the University of Bologna, has discovered something which she claims to be a seventeenth-century Jesuit manuscript that describes literary ''quipus'', titled {{lang|la|Historia et Rudimenta Linguae Piruanorum}}. This manuscript consists of nine folios with Spanish, Latin, and ciphered Italian texts. Owned by the family of Neapolitan historian Clara Miccinelli, the manuscript also includes a wool ''quipu'' fragment. Miccinelli claims that the text was written by two Italian Jesuit missionaries, Joan Antonio Cumis and Giovanni Anello Oliva, around 1610–1638, and Blas Valera, a mestizo Jesuit sometime before 1618. Along with the details of reading literary ''quipus'', the documents also discuss the events and people of the Spanish conquest of Peru. According to Cumis, since so many ''quipus'' were burned by the Spanish, very few remained for him to analyze. As related in the manuscript, the word Pacha Kamaq, the Inca deity of earth and time, was used many times in these ''quipus'', where the syllables were represented by symbols formed in the knots. Following the analysis of the use of "Pacha Kamaq", the manuscript offers a list of many words present in ''quipus''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Laurencich-Minelli |first1=Laura |title=Historia et Rudimenta Linguae Piruanorum ¿un estorbo o un acontecimiento? |journal=Anthropologica del Departamento de Ciencias Sociales |date=28 March 1998 |volume=16 |issue=16 |pages=349–367 |doi=10.18800/anthropologica.199801.015 |s2cid=161645381 |language=es |issn=2224-6428|doi-access=free }}</ref> However, both Bruce Mannheim, the director of the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Michigan, and Colgate University's Gary Urton, question its origin and authenticity. These documents seem to be inspired freely by a 1751 writing of Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero.<ref name="AncientScripts">{{cite web |title=Ancient Scripts: Quipu |url=http://www.ancientscripts.com/quipu.html |website=www.ancientscripts.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Talking Knots of the Inka |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/9611/abstracts/inka.html |website=Archaeology Magazine Archive |access-date=9 May 2026}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Domenici|1996}}</ref>
== History ==
=== Possible proto-''quipus'' === Claims of the earliest ''quipu,'' or possible proto-''quipu,'' comes from the Late Preceramic (c. 3000–1800 BCE) site of Caral,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shady |first=Ruth |date=2006-03-30 |title=La civilización Caral: sistema social y manejo del territorio y sus recursos. Su trascendencia en el proceso cultural andino |url=https://revistas.pucp.edu.pe/index.php/boletindearqueologia/article/view/1642 |journal=Boletín de Arqueología PUCP |issue=10 |pages=59–89 |doi=10.18800/boletindearqueologiapucp.200601.004 |issn=2304-4292}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Mann |first=C. C. |date=12 August 2005 |title=ARCHAEOLOGY: Unraveling Khipu's Secrets |journal=Science |volume=309 |issue=5737 |pages=1008–1009 |doi=10.1126/science.309.5737.1008 |pmid=16099962 |s2cid=161448364}}</ref> though this claim has yet to be thoroughly evaluated. A more plausible candidate for the earliest known precursor to ''quipus'' may be the wrapped batons found at the site of Cerrillos from the Late Paracas Period (c. 350–200 BCE).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Splitstoser |first=Jeffrey C. |title=Textiles, technical practice, and power in the Andes |date=2014 |publisher=Archetype Publications |isbn=978-1-909492-08-0 |editor-last=Arnold |editor-first=Denise Y. |location=London |pages=46–82 |chapter=Practice and meaning in spiral-wrapped batons and cords from Cerrillos, a Late Paracas site in the Ica Valley, Peru |editor-last2=Dransart |editor-first2=Penelope Z.}}</ref>
=== Wari Empire === The first undisputed evidence of ''quipu'' technology dates back to the Middle Horizon (c. 600–1000 CE),<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cherkinsky |first1=Alexander |last2=Urton |first2=Gary |date=2014-01-21 |title=Radiocarbon chronology of Andean khipus |url=https://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/arc/article/view/arc.2014.5260 |journal=Open Journal of Archaeometry |language=en |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.4081/arc.2014.5260 |issn=2038-1956}}</ref> with these early ''quipus'' being used by the Wari Empire. Differing slightly from their Inca successors, extant Wari ''quipu'' specimens tend to be smaller, have brightly colored thread wrapped cords, and their own system of knots which scholars do not fully understand.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Conklin |first=William J |date=1982 |title=The Information System of Middle Horizon Quipus |url=https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb34269.x |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=385 |issue=1 |pages=261–281 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb34269.x |bibcode=1982NYASA.385..261C |issn=1749-6632|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Urton |first=Gary |date=2014 |title=From Middle Horizon cord-keeping to the rise of Inka khipus in the central Andes |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/abs/from-middle-horizon-cordkeeping-to-the-rise-of-inka-khipus-in-the-central-andes/04964C31803194A5EA0F1565617F00C9 |journal=Antiquity |language=en |volume=88 |issue=339 |pages=205–221 |doi=10.1017/S0003598X00050316 |issn=0003-598X|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Inca Empire === {{See also|Inca education}} thumb|upright|Representation of a ''quipu'' (1890)
''Quipucamayocs'' (Quechua ''khipu kamayuq'', "khipu-authority"), the accountants of Tawantin Suyu, created and deciphered the ''quipu'' knots. ''Quipucamayocs'' could carry out basic arithmetic operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. They kept track of mita, a form of taxation. The ''quipucamayocs'' also tracked the type of labor being performed, maintained a record of economic output, and ran a census that counted everyone from infants to "old blind men over 80". The system was also used to keep track of the calendar. According to Guaman Poma, ''quipucamayocs'' could "read" the ''quipus'' with their eyes closed.<ref name="AncientScripts" />
''Quipucamayocs'' were from a class of people, "males, fifty to sixty",<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ordish, George |author2=Hyams, Edward |title=The last of the Incas: the rise and fall of an American empire |publisher=Barnes & Noble |location=New York |year=1996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/69 69] |isbn=978-0-88029-595-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/69 }}</ref> and were not the only members of Inca society to use ''quipus''. Inca historians used ''quipus'' when telling the Spanish about Tawantin Suyu history (whether they only recorded important numbers or actually contained the story itself is unknown). Members of the ruling class were usually taught to read ''quipus'' in the Inca equivalent of a university, the ''yachay wasi'' (literally, "house of teaching"), in the third year of schooling, for the higher classes who would eventually become the bureaucracy.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Ordish, George |author2=Hyams, Edward |title=The last of the Incas: the rise and fall of an American empire |publisher=Barnes & Noble |location=New York |year=1996 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/113 113] |isbn=978-0-88029-595-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/lastofincasrisef0000hyam/page/113 }}</ref>
=== Spanish Empire === 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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pizarro |first=Hernando |title=Letter of Hernando Pizarro |date=2010 |work=Reports on the Discovery of Peru |pages=113–128 |editor-last=Markham |editor-first=Clements R. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/reports-on-the-discovery-of-peru/letter-of-hernando-pizarro/DF9125E7CD336B83E12A075746EE543C |access-date=2024-12-30 |series=Cambridge Library Collection - Hakluyt First Series |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511697081.005 |isbn=978-0-511-69708-1|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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]."<ref>Urton 2003. p. 3.</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter=A los Señores Oydores de la Audiencia Real de Su Magestad |title=Informaciones sobre el antiguo Perú |editor-first=Horacio H. |editor-last=Urteaga |series=Colección de Libros y Documentos Referentes a la Historia del Perú 3 (Second Series) |location=Lima |publisher=Imprenta y Librería Sanmartí |pages=175, 178 |language=es}}</ref><ref>[https://kuprienko.info/letter-from-hernando-pizarro-to-the-royal-audience-of-santo-domingo-november-1533/ Letter from Hernando Pizarro to the Royal Audience of Santo Domingo], November 1533</ref><ref>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</ref>
Christian officials of the Third Council of Lima banned and ordered the burning of some q''uipus'' 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.<ref name=":5">{{harvnb|Salomon|2004}}</ref>
=== Contemporary social importance === The ''quipu'' system operated as both a method of calculation and social organization, regulating regional governance and land use.<ref>{{harvnb|Niles|2007|p=92–93}}</ref> 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.'<ref name="Niles, Susan A. 2007. 93">{{harvnb|Niles|2007|p=93}}</ref> 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.'<ref name="Niles, Susan A. 2007. 93" /> 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''.<ref name="Niles, Susan A. 2007. 93" /> 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.'<ref name="Niles, Susan A. 2007. 93" /> 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.
Anthropologists and archaeologists carrying out research in Peru have highlighted two known cases where ''quipus'' have continued to be used by contemporary communities, albeit as ritual items seen as "communal patrimony" rather than as devices for recording information.<ref name="Peters and Salomon 41">Peters and Salomon 2006/2007. p. 41.</ref> The ''quipu'' system, being the useful method of social management it was for the Inca, is also a link to the Cuzco census, as it was one of the primary methods of population calculation.<ref name="D'Altroy, Terence N. 2001">{{harvnb|D'Altroy|2001|p=234–235}}</ref> This also has allowed historians and anthropologists to understand both the census and the "decimal hierarchy" system the Inca used, and that they were actually 'initiated together,' due to the fact that they were 'conceptually so closely linked.'<ref name="D'Altroy, Terence N. 2001" />
==== 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.<ref>{{harvnb|Domenici|1996}}</ref> 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.<ref>Salomon 2004</ref>
==== 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. 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".<ref name="Peters and Salomon 41" />
In 2004, the archaeologist Renata Peeters (of the UCL Institute of Archaeology in London) and the cultural anthropologist Frank Salomon (of the University of Wisconsin) undertook a project to conserve both the ''quipus'' in Rapaz and the building that it was in, due to their increasingly poor condition.<ref>Peters and Salomon 2006/2007. pp. 41–44.</ref>
==== Jucul, Peru ==== The remote village of Jucul, Peru, has kept ''quipus'' in the attic of its colonial church for centuries, only recently being discovered by outsiders in 2024.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=WHqo30fwDtoRx2IY&v=FtaZEHygGEw&feature=youtu.be |title=Sabine Hyland: Human figures as visual signs in khipus |date=2024-10-17 |last=Visual Interactions in Early Writing Systems |access-date=2025-01-12 |via=YouTube}}</ref> These ''quipus'' are closely related to those of San Cristóbal de Rapaz, which is near by.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About – CSRP – Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics |url=https://csrp.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/about/ |access-date=2025-01-12 |website=csrp.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk}}</ref>
== Collections and number of ''quipus'' == The total number of quipus is unknown.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} 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.
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."<ref>Urton 2003. p. 2.</ref>
The Khipu Database Project was started by Urton and Carrie Brezine with funding from Harvard University and the National Science Foundation with the aim of centralizing data about known quipus.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ProjectDescription |url=http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/ProjectDescription.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722135554/http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/ProjectDescription.html |archive-date=2011-07-22 |access-date=2026-01-19 |website=khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Researchers |url=http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/Researchers.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722135256/http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/Researchers.html |archive-date=2011-07-22 |access-date=2026-01-19 |website=khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu}}</ref> The project later became the Open Khipu Repository, which introduced a new "KH" numbering system to distinguish between ''quipus'', moving away from naming systems based on archaeologists' names.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Brezine |first1=Carrie J. |last2=Clindaniel |first2=Jon |last3=Ghezzi |first3=Ivan |last4=Hyland |first4=Sabine |last5=Medrano |first5=Manuel |date=December 2024 |title=A New Naming Convention for Andean Khipus |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/latin-american-antiquity/article/abs/new-naming-convention-for-andean-khipus/A1B2108CA17B97489330EF7AC9BFB1B5 |journal=Latin American Antiquity |language=en |volume=35 |issue=4 |pages=1039–1044 |doi=10.1017/laq.2023.71 |issn=1045-6635}}</ref> As of January 2026, the Open Khipu Repository records 702 ''quipus'' with publicly available data.<ref>{{Citation |last=Team |first=O. K. R. |title=The Open Khipu Repository |date=2025-12-22 |url=https://zenodo.org/records/18025748 |access-date=2026-01-18 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.18025748}}</ref>
A 2021 survey of both museum and private collection inventories places the total number of known extant pre-Columbian ''quipus'' at just under 1,400.<ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=Medrano |first=Manuel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=veBGEAAAQBAJ |title=Quipus: Mil años de historia anudada en los Andes y su futuro digital |date=2021-10-11 |publisher=Planeta Perú |isbn=978-612-319-672-1 |language=es}}</ref> {| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" |+Institutional ''quipu'' collections |- !scope="col"| Collection !scope="col"| Location !scope="col"| ''Quipus'' |- !scope="row"| Ethnological Museum of Berlin | Berlin, Germany || 298{{citation needed|date=November 2023|reason=The German Wikipedia article gives a different number (289), but does not provide a source either. The source given above (the ''Khipu Database Project'') gives yet another number (317), as of July 2009.}} |- !scope="row"| Museum Five Continents | Munich, Germany ||??<ref name="munich">{{cite web |title=State Museum of Ethnography |url=http://www.voelkerkundemuseum-muenchen.de/}}</ref> |- !scope="row"| Pachacamac | near Lima, Peru || 35<ref name="muspachacamac">{{cite web |title=Museo de Pachacamac |url=http://pachacamac.perucultural.org.pe/puert.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010311155114/http://pachacamac.perucultural.org.pe/puert.htm |archive-date=2001-03-11}}</ref> |- !scope="row"| Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú | Lima, Peru || 35<ref name="museonantarc">{{cite web |title=Museo Nacional de Arqueologia, Antropologia e Historia |url=http://museonacional.perucultural.org.pe/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050312223321/http://museonacional.perucultural.org.pe/ |archive-date=2005-03-12}}</ref> |- !scope="row"| Centro Mallqui | Leimebamba, Amazonas, Peru || 32<ref name="centromallquicultura">{{cite web |title=Centro Mallqui Cultura |url=http://centromallqui.org.pe/ley_index_en.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070808202924/http://centromallqui.org.pe/ley_index_en.htm |archive-date=2007-08-08}}</ref> |- !scope="row"| Museo Temple Radicati, National University of San Marcos | Lima, Peru || 26{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} |- !scope="row"| Regional Museum of Ica "Adolfo Bermúdez Jenkins" | Ica, Peru || 25{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} |- !scope="row"| Museo Puruchuco<ref name="puruchuco">{{cite web |title=Museo Puruchuco |url=http://museopuruchuco.perucultural.org.pe/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000930025402/http://museopuruchuco.perucultural.org.pe/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2000-09-30 }}</ref> | Ate District, Lima, Peru || 23{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}} |}
== Preservation == ''Quipus'' are made of fibers, either spun and plied thread such as wool or hair from alpaca, llama, guanaco or vicuña, though are also commonly made of cellulose like cotton. Archaeological evidence has also shown that, in some cases, finely carved wood was used as a supplemental base to which the color-coded cords could be attached.<ref>{{harvnb|D'Altroy|2001|p=16–17}}</ref> The knotted strings of ''quipus'' were often made with an "elaborate system of knotted cords, dyed in various colors, the significance of which was known to the magistrates".<ref name="Bingham">{{cite book |last= Bingham |first= Hiram |author-link=Hiram Bingham III |title=Lost City of the Incas, The Story of Machu Picchu and its Builders |year=1948 |publisher=Duell, Sloan & Pearce |location=New York |oclc=486224}}</ref> Fading of color, natural or dyed, cannot be reversed, and may indicate further damage to the fibers. Colors can darken if damaged by dust or by certain dyes and mordants.<ref name="CanadaCITextile">{{cite web |author1=Canadian Conservation Institute |title=Caring for textiles and costumes – Preventive conservation guidelines for collections |url=https://www.canada.ca/en/conservation-institute/services/preventive-conservation/guidelines-collections/textiles-costumes.html |website=Preventive conservation guidelines for collections |access-date=22 May 2019 |date=11 May 2018}}</ref> ''Quipus'' have been found with adornments, such dried potatoes and beans, attached to the cords, and these non-textile materials may require additional preservation measures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hyland |first1=Sabine |last2=Lee |first2=Christine |date=2021-08-01 |title=Indigenous Record Keeping and Hacienda Culture in the Andes: Modern Khipu Accounting on the Island of the Sun, Bolivia |url=https://read.dukeupress.edu/hahr/article/101/3/409/174037/Indigenous-Record-Keeping-and-Hacienda-Culture-in |journal=Hispanic American Historical Review |language=en |volume=101 |issue=3 |pages=409–432 |doi=10.1215/00182168-9051807 |issn=0018-2168|hdl=10023/24169 |hdl-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
''Quipus'' are now preserved using techniques that aim to minimize their future degradation. Museums, archives and special collections have adopted preservation guidelines from textile practices.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Rode |first1=Nicole |title=Textile conservation: advances in practice |last2=Pardo |first2=Cecilia |last3=Clindaniel |first3=Jon |date=2024 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-003-35878-7 |editor-last=Lennard |editor-first=Frances |edition=Second |series=Routledge series in conservation and museology |location=Abingdon, Oxon |pages=256–263 |chapter=Documentation as conservation: The treatment of an archaeological Andean khipu |editor-last2=Ewer |editor-first2=Patricia |editor-last3=Mina |editor-first3=Laura}}</ref>
Environmental controls are used to monitor and control temperature, humidity and light exposure of storage areas. As with all textiles, cool, clean, dry and dark environments are most suitable. The heating, ventilating and air conditioning, or HVAC systems, of buildings that house ''quipu'' knot records are usually automatically regulated. Relative humidity should be 60% or lower, with low temperatures, as high temperatures can damage the fibres and make them brittle. Damp conditions and high humidity can damage protein-rich material. Textiles suffer damage from ultraviolet (UV) light, which can include fading and weakening of the fibrous material. When ''quipus'' are on display, their exposure to ambient conditions is usually minimized and closely monitored.<ref name="CanadaCITextile"/><ref name="conservationregister">{{cite web|title=Care and conservation of costume and textiles | website = Conservation Register | url = http://www.conservationregister.com/christening.asp?id=4 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110725152220/http://www.conservationregister.com/christening.asp?id=4| archive-date = 2011-07-25 }}</ref>
Despite best efforts, damage can occur during storage, or be from the result of earlier conservation efforts.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thompson |first=Karen M. |title=A Numerical Connection Between Two Khipus |journal=Ñawpa Pacha |date=2024 |volume=45 |pages=83–104 |doi=10.1080/00776297.2024.2411789 |issn=0077-6297|doi-access=free }}</ref> The more accessible the items are during storage, the greater the chance of early detection.<ref name="conservationregister" /> Storing ''quipus'' horizontally on boards covered with a neutral pH paper (paper that is neither acid or alkaline) to prevent potential acid transfer is a preservation technique that extends the life of a collection. The fibers can be abraded by rubbing against each other or, for those attached to sticks or rods, by their own weight if held in an upright position. Extensive handling of ''quipus'' can also increase the risk of further damage.<ref name="storage">{{cite journal |last=Piechota |first=Dennis |title =Storage Containerization Archaeological Textile Collections |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation | volume=18 |issue=1 | pages=10–18 | year=1978 |doi =10.2307/3179387 |jstor=3179387}}</ref>
''Quipus'' are also closely monitored for mold, as well as insects and their larvae. As with all textiles, these are major problems. Fumigation may not be recommended for fiber textiles displaying mold or insect infestations, although it is common practice for ridding paper of mold and insects.
Conservators in the field of library science have the skills to handle a variety of situations. Even though some ''quipus'' have hundreds of cords, each cord should be assessed and treated individually. ''Quipu'' cords can be "mechanically cleaned with brushes, small tools and light vacuuming".<ref name="Salomon" /> Just as the application of fungicides is not recommended to rid ''quipus'' of mold, neither is the use of solvents to clean them.
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.<ref name="Salomon">{{Cite book |last1= Salomon |first1= Frank |last2= Peters |first2= Renata |title=''Governance and Conservation of the Rapaz Khipu Patrimony.'' |year=2007 |publisher=Archaeology International #10.}}</ref> 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''.<ref name="Salomon" />
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."<ref name="string">{{cite web |title=Conversations String Theorist |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/0511/etc/conversations.html |access-date=2005-10-21 |archive-date=2011-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605235026/http://www.archaeology.org/0511/etc/conversations.html |url-status=live |date=2005}}</ref>
Ruth Shady, a Peruvian archeologist, has discovered what she argues resembles a proto-''quipu'' dating to approximately 5,000 years old in the coastal city of Caral. It was in quite good condition, with "brown cotton strings wound around thin sticks", along with "a series of offerings, including mysterious fiber balls of different sizes wrapped in 'nets' and pristine reed baskets. Piles of raw cotton – uncombed and containing seeds, though turned a dirty brown by the ages – and a ball of cotton thread" were also found preserved. The good condition of these articles can be attributed to the arid climate of Caral.<ref name="proto-quipu">{{cite journal |last=Mann |first=Charles |title =Unraveling Khipu's Secrets |journal=Science | volume=309 | pages=1008–1009 | year=2005 |doi=10.1126/science.309.5737.1008 |pmid=16099962 |issue=5737|s2cid=161448364 }} {{cite web |title=proto-quipu |url=http://www.charlesmann.org/articles/Science-khipu-decipher-08-05.pdf |access-date=2009-12-24 |archive-date=2011-08-18 |archive-url=https://www.webcitation.org/611ukdheC?url=http://www.charlesmann.org/articles/Science-khipu-decipher-08-05.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== In popular culture ==
=== Film and television === * ''Kamen Rider Amazon'' (1974): In Episode 6, Amazon and friends investigate and find a ''quipu'' which Amazon could decipher. But the Porcupine Beastman arrives and steals the ''quipu''. The Mole Beastman retrieves the ''quipu'' for Amazon who learns of the Incan science rested on the GiGi and GaGa Armlets. * ''The Mysterious Cities of Gold'' (1982): As the daughter of an Incan priest, Zia can read and create ''quipu'' and is depicted doing so in several episodes. * ''Earth: Final Conflict'' (1999): A ''quipu'' and the Nazca Lines play a role in the plot of Season 3, Episode 5. *''Da Vinci's Demons'' (2014): In Season 3, Episode 5, Leonardo and his associates are captured by an Inca patrol, who are given updated orders recorded on a ''quipu''. * ''Teekyu'' (2015): In Season 4, Marimo uses a ''quipu'' to subdue Tomarin in a comedic sequence. * ''Dora and the Lost City of Gold'' (2019): Dora "reads" a stone ''quipu'' by touch to uncover a treasure's location. * ''See'' (2019-2022): Characters in the series, who are blind, use knotted strings for communication. * ''Futurama'' (2024): In Season 12, Episode 1, Bender returns to his country of origin, Mexico,<ref>There is no known evidence which links ''quipu'' technology to Mexico. The ''quipu'' is historically associated with the Inca Empire and other Andean cultures. The depiction of a ''quipu'' in a Mexican context is an example of cultural conflation, where distinct pre-Columbian civilizations, such as the Maya, Aztec, and Inca, are mistakenly blended together in popular media.</ref> where he receives a ''quipu'' from his grandmother. * ''Paddington in Peru'' (2024): A message is recorded in a ''quipu'' to provide directions to El Dorado. * ''Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado'' (2025): Dora and Diego interpret quipus throughout their adventures.<ref>{{cite news |first=Carlos |last=Aguilar |url=https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/dora-and-the-search-for-sol-dorado-review-dora-the-explorer-1236447571 |title='Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado' Review: Harmless Reboot Highlights Inca Culture and Expected Family-Friendly Tropes |website=Variety |date=July 4, 2025 |access-date=July 5, 2025}}</ref> * Jeopardy! (2026): "''What is a quipu?"'' was featured as the $2,000 question in the Double Jeopardy round under the category “ARE YOU KNOT ENTERTAINED?” on February 17, 2026.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2026-02-17 |title=J! Archive - Show #9502, aired 2026-02-17 |url=https://j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=9381&highlight=quipu |access-date=2026-02-20 |website=j-archive.com |language=en}}</ref>
=== Literature === * ''The Wine-Dark Sea'' by Patrick O’Brian: A ''quipu'' conveys an important message in Chapter 9. * ''The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.'' by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland: ''Quipus'' are used by witches for navigating time travel algorithms. * ''This Is How You Lose the Time War'' by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone: A letter from "Blue" is hidden in pre-Columbian Peru as a "knot code." * ''Ammonite'' by Nicola Griffith: Knotted message cords, read by touch, facilitate communication across distances. * ''Catalina'' by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio: Researchers work to decode Andean ''quipus'' in a subplot. *''The Bedlam Stacks'' by Natasha Pulley: ''Quipus'' are used by various Quechua characters and one non-Quechua character to leave messages for one another.
=== Games === * ''Death Stranding'': The character Amelie wears a ''quipu'' necklace, and a device inspired by the ''quipu''—the Q-Pid—is featured. * ''Magic: The Gathering'': The expansion set ''The Lost Caverns of Ixalan'' includes a card named "Braided Quipu," transforming from "Braided Net." * ''Catan - Rise of the Inkas:'' ''Quipu'' imagery is used in the visual design to evoke Inka administration, though ''quipus'' do not function as a distinct gameplay mechanic.
== References == === Footnotes === {{Reflist|23em}}
=== Bibliography === {{Refbegin|30em}} *{{cite book |last=Adrien|first= Kenneth |year=2001 |title=Andean Worlds: Indigenous History, Culture and Consciousness |location=Albuquerque |publisher=University of New Mexico Press |isbn=978-0-8263-2359-0}} *{{cite journal |author=The Archaeological Institute of America |date=November–December 2005 |title=Conversations: String Theorist |journal=Archaeology |volume=58 |issue=6 |url=https://archive.archaeology.org/0511/etc/conversations.html |issn=0003-8113 |access-date=2005-10-21 |archive-date=2011-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605235026/http://www.archaeology.org/0511/etc/conversations.html |url-status=live }} *{{cite book |last1=Ascher|first1=Marcia|author1-link= Marcia Ascher |first2=Robert |last2=Ascher |year=1978 |title=Code of the Quipu: Databook |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |id=ASIN B0006X3SV4}} *{{cite book |last1=Ascher|first1= Marcia|author1-link= Marcia Ascher |first2=Robert |last2=Ascher |year=1980 |title=Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture|title-link= Code of the Quipu |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=978-0-472-09325-0}} *{{cite book |last=Brokaw|first= Galen |year=2010 |title=A History of the Khipu |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-19779-3}} *{{cite magazine | last = Cook | first = Gareth | author-link = Gareth Cook | title = Untangling the Mystery of the Inca | date = January 2007 | url = https://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.01/khipu.html | magazine = Wired | volume = 15 | issue = 1 | issn = 1059-1028 }} *{{cite book |last=D'Altroy |first=Terrence N. |title=The Incas |year=2001 |publisher=Blackwell Publishing |location=Victoria, Australia |isbn=978-0-631-17677-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/incasthepeopleso00tere }} *{{cite book |last=Day |first=Cyrus Lawrence |year=1967 |title=Quipus and witches' knots; the role of the knot in primitive and ancient cultures |url=https://archive.org/details/quipuswitcheskno0000dayc |url-access=registration |publisher=University of Kansas Press |location=Lawrence |oclc=1446690 }} *{{cite journal|last1=Hyland|first1=Sabine|title=Writing with Twisted Cords: The Inscriptive Capacity of Andean Khipus|journal=Current Anthropology|volume=58|issue=3|year=2017|pages=412–419|issn=0011-3204|doi=10.1086/691682|hdl=10023/12326|s2cid=164759609|hdl-access=free}} [https://st-andrews.academia.edu/SabineHyland Web access] *{{cite journal |last= Niles|first= Susan A. |year=2007 |title=Considering Quipus: Andean Knotted String Records in Analytical Context |journal=Reviews in Anthropology |volume=36 |pages=85–102 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |issn=0093-8157|doi=10.1080/00938150601177629 |s2cid= 161544309 }} *{{cite book |last=Nordenskiold |first=Erland |title=''The Secret of the Peruvian Quipus'' |year=1925 |oclc=2887018}} * {{Cite news|title= Patrimony and partnership: conserving the ''khipu'' legacy of Rapaz, Peru |last1=Peters |first1=Renata |last2=Salomon |first2=Frank |year=2006–2007 |journal=Archaeology International |publisher=UCL Institute of Archaeology |location=London |issn=1463-1725 |pages=41–44 |ref=Pet06/07}} *{{cite journal |last=Piechota |first=Dennis |title =Storage Containerization Archaeological Textile Collections |journal=Journal of the American Institute for Conservation | volume=18 |issue=1 | pages=10–18 | year=1978 |doi =10.2307/3179387 |jstor=3179387}} * {{cite journal |last1=Saez-Rodríguez |first1=Alberto |title=An Ethnomathematics Exercise for Analyzing a Khipu Sample from Pachacamac (Perú) |journal=Revista Latinoamericana de Etnomatemática |date=2012 |volume=5 |issue=1|pages=62–88 |url=http://www.redalyc.org/html/2740/274021551003/}} *{{cite journal |last=Salomon |first=Frank |title=How an Andean 'Writing Without Words' Works | journal=Current Anthropology |volume= 42 |issue=1 |pages=1–27 |year=2001 |doi=10.1086/318435|s2cid=224799182 }} *{{cite book |last=Salomon |first=Frank |year=2004 |title=The Cord Keepers: Khipus and Cultural Life in a Peruvian Village |location=Durham |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3379-1 |oclc=54929904}} *{{cite journal |last1=Salomon |first1=Frank |last2=Peters |first2=Renata |others=Collaboration of Carrie Brezine, Gino de las Casas Ríos, Víctor Falcón Huayta, Rosa Choque Gonzales, and Rosalía Choque Gonzales |date=31 March 2007 |title=Governance and Conservation of the Rapaz Khipu Patrimony |journal=Paper Delivered at Interdisciplinary Workshop on Intangible Heritage |publisher=Collaborative for Cultural Heritage and Museum Practices, Urbana-Champaign, IL}} *{{cite journal | last=Urton |first=Gary |author-link=Gary Urton | title=From Knots to Narratives: Reconstructing the Art of Historical Record Keeping in the Andes from Spanish Transcriptions of Inka ''Khipus'' | year=1998 |journal=Ethnohistory |volume=45 |issue=5 | pages=409–438 |doi=10.2307/483319 | jstor=483319|url=http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33703661 }} *{{cite book |last=Urton |first=Gary |title=Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records |year=2003 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |isbn=978-0-292-78539-7|oclc=50323023 |ref=Urt03}} *{{cite web |author=Urton, Gary |author2=Carrie Brezine |year=2003–2004 |title=The Khipu Database Project |url=http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427121825/http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8633818/ |archive-date=April 27, 2006 }} *{{cite journal | last=Urton |first=Gary |title=Tying the Archive in Knots, or: Dying to get into the Archive in Ancient Peru |journal=Archives and Records |year=2011 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor and Francis Groupe |issn=0037-9816}} *{{cite book |author=Urton, Gary |date=2017 |title=Inka history in knots |location=Austin, TX |publisher=University of Texas Press}} *{{cite journal |last=Domenici |first=Davide |title=Talking Knots of the Inka |year=1996 |journal=Archaeology |volume=49 |issue=6 |pages=13–24}} *{{cite journal |last=Locke |first=Leland |title=The Ancient Quipu, a Peruvian Knot Record |year=1912 |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=325–332 |doi=10.1525/aa.1912.14.2.02a00070}} *{{cite web |last=National Geographic |year=1996 |title=Accounting Cords |website=National Geographic Society |url=http://www.nationalgeographic.com/inca/inca_culture_3.html |access-date=2016-03-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160408060621/http://www.nationalgeographic.com/inca/inca_culture_3.html |archive-date=2016-04-08 |url-status=dead }} {{Refend}}
== External links == {{Commons category|Quipu}} {{EB1911 poster|Quipus}}
=== ''Quipu'' database projects === *[https://zenodo.org/records/18025748 The Open Khipu Repository] (formerly known as the [https://www.unesco.org/en/memory-world/lac/khipu-database-khipu-archives Harvard Khipu Database Project]) *[https://www.khipufieldguide.com The Khipu Field Guide] (''quipu'' schematics and investigations from a large ''quipu'' database) *[https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/quipu/ Code of the Quipu: Databooks] (contains the descriptions and data for the more than 200 ''quipus'' studied Marcia Ascher and Robert Ascher)
=== Virtual ''quipu'' exhibitions ===
* ''[https://www.nist.gov/nist-museum/standardizing-empire Standardizing an Empire]'' (2023 exhibition by the National Institute of Standards and Technology Museum in collaboration with Dumbarton Oaks) * [https://artsandculture.google.com/project/khipus ''The Khipu Keepers: Explore the undeciphered writing of the Incas''] (2020 exhibition by the Google Arts & Culture in collaboration with the Lima Art Museum) * [https://www.doaks.org/visit/museum/exhibitions/past/written-in-knots ''Written in Knots: Undeciphered Accounts of Andean Life''] (2019 exhibition by the Dumbarton Oaks) * [https://precolombino.cl/wp/en/exposiciones/exposiciones-temporales/exposicion-quipu-contar-anudando-en-el-imperio-inka-2003/ ''Quipu: Counting with knots in the Inka Empire''] (2003 exhibition by the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino)
=== Media coverage === *[https://gizmodo.com/new-details-emerge-about-ancient-inca-counting-technology-2000641747 New Details Emerge About Ancient Inca Counting Technology - Gizmodo - Margherita Bassi - August 13, 2025] * {{Cite web |last=Romero |first=Simon |date=August 16, 2010 |title=High in the Andes, Keeping an Incan Mystery Alive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/world/americas/17peru.html |website=The New York Times}} * {{Cite web |date=August 12, 2005 |title=Experts 'decipher' Inca strings |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4143968.stm |website=BBC News}} * {{cite web |title=Peruvian 'writing' system goes back 5,000 years |website=NBC News |date=July 29, 2005 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8633818 |access-date=January 22, 2018|last=Webber|first=Jude}} – MSNBC {{Inca Empire topics}} {{Knots}}
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Category:Types of archaeological artefact Category:Inca mathematics Category:Knots Category:Mathematical notation Category:Numerals Category:Proto-writing Category:Recording Category:Textile arts of the Andes