Researchers May Be Closer to Solving Ancient Inca Mystery - History in the Headlines
The site of the ancient city of Incahuasi, meaning “house of the Inca emperor,” sits in the hills above the Cañete River valley, about 100 miles south of the modern-day city of Lima, Peru. In the 15th and early 16th centuries, when the powerful Inca Empire extended throughout the Andes Mountains, from Ecuador to central Chile, Incahuasi served as a base for the Inca invasion of the southern Peruvian coast; today it is an important archaeological complex for researchers seeking insight into the life of the Incas. Recently, a team of archaeologists excavating an ancient storehouse there discovered an unexpected bounty: some 29 khipu, the mysterious knotted-string devices used by the Incas for various types of recordkeeping and communication.
The ancient Inca device known as the khipu consists of a series of knotted cotton or wool strings hung from a main cord, typically made from llama or alpaca hair.According to the Khipu Database Project, the word “khipu” comes from the Quechuan word for knot, and is used for both singular and plural forms of the noun. Some khipu have as many as 2,000 strings attached to the main cord. Each string may have several knots, the type and location of which convey different types of information.
Though researchers long ago figured out the basics of how the khipu works—how the knots represent numbers and the placement of the knots in the string represent mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction—they are still trying to figure out what other information may have been encoded within these “talking knots.” According to colonial-era documents, the Inca would use the devices in various ways, including sending messages via runners throughout their empire and recording historical narratives, calendar information and proof of land ownership.
FULL STORY AT SITE
The site of the ancient city of Incahuasi, meaning “house of the Inca emperor,” sits in the hills above the Cañete River valley, about 100 miles south of the modern-day city of Lima, Peru. In the 15th and early 16th centuries, when the powerful Inca Empire extended throughout the Andes Mountains, from Ecuador to central Chile, Incahuasi served as a base for the Inca invasion of the southern Peruvian coast; today it is an important archaeological complex for researchers seeking insight into the life of the Incas. Recently, a team of archaeologists excavating an ancient storehouse there discovered an unexpected bounty: some 29 khipu, the mysterious knotted-string devices used by the Incas for various types of recordkeeping and communication.
The ancient Inca device known as the khipu consists of a series of knotted cotton or wool strings hung from a main cord, typically made from llama or alpaca hair.According to the Khipu Database Project, the word “khipu” comes from the Quechuan word for knot, and is used for both singular and plural forms of the noun. Some khipu have as many as 2,000 strings attached to the main cord. Each string may have several knots, the type and location of which convey different types of information.
Though researchers long ago figured out the basics of how the khipu works—how the knots represent numbers and the placement of the knots in the string represent mathematical operations such as addition and subtraction—they are still trying to figure out what other information may have been encoded within these “talking knots.” According to colonial-era documents, the Inca would use the devices in various ways, including sending messages via runners throughout their empire and recording historical narratives, calendar information and proof of land ownership.
FULL STORY AT SITE