How the Inca made Computers out of String
Understanding the history of Quipus
Hidden in the Andes Mountains is the famous yet mysterious empire of the Inca. Long believed to have no writing system, the South American civilization has little record to show for its accomplishments.
While the Quipu (kee-poo), a record system using knots, has been known for a while, its importance has largely been ignored.
This belief is quickly changing, as archaeologists and historians learn more about the meanings of these knots.
The Inca had many purposes for them
The Inca are often regarded as one of the most powerful societies in the Americas if not all of the ancient world.
Stretching across the Andes mountain range, the Inca Empire managed to control almost 800,000 square of the most treacherous terrain.
Given the circumstances, communication and transportation were essential to the Empire’s success; a perfect use case for Quipus.
Tied knots provided a more durable alternative to paper and a more transportable alternative to stone tablets. The reusability of the string supplied substantial benefits as well.
Archaeologists and historians believe the primary uses of Quipus were numerical data such as military enlistments, inventories, tax collecting, and census data.
In colonial times, some resistance fighters were believed to use Quipus to plot against their Spanish oppressors to deliver secret messages.
Quipus are a lot older than the Inca
Quipus flourished during the Inca Empire, from 1438 CE to the arrival of the Spanish in 1533 CE.
While the writing system is often attributed to the Inca, it has existed in Peru for thousands of years.
The earliest example of a string writing system similar to a Quipu dates back to 5,000 years ago in the city of Caral-Supe.
Quipus were decyphered over a Spring Break
While archaeologists understood the significance of Quipus, they were left clueless as to the meaning.
This would all change in 2017 when a professor and student from Harvard cracked the code of the Quipus over a spring break.
Professor Gary Urton and his student, Manny Medrano, compared 6 Quipus to colonial-era Spanish census documents.
In an interview with NPR, Medrano described the research process
The coincidence that we found is if you were to add up the names of all these villagers — a list of 132 of them, all with different first names — we have Joses (ph) and Felipes (ph) and this group of villagers. The thought is if I were making a census khipu, if I were knotting strings to encode the information of these villagers, how would I do it? And the first instinct was assign a different color to the Joses and then a different color to the Felipes.
The Quipus were essentially census data; an ancient version of Microsoft Excel.
While the Harvard researchers have made substantial progress in decoding the strings, there is still much to be uncovered about the Quipus.
Some researchers have even theorized that some Quipus may have musical and cultural purposes, however, there is less research in this area.
How to read the knots
As mentioned earlier, the Quipus were a complex system used to serve many purposes.
Accounting was their primary purpose. A variety of knots were used to represent numbers.
The counting system operated on a base of 10, with each substring having a one’s, ten’s, hundred’s, and thound’s place.
Colors, rope materials, knot sequences, and directions can all mean different things when reading Quipus.
How to read the Quipus is best summarized as
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.
Zero is represented by the absence of a knot in the appropriate position.
This seemingly complex system is surprisingly easy to interpret. Despite these simple rules, the world of Quipus is much more complicated.
Importance of Preserving Language
Much of the understanding of Quipus has been lost, but this hasn’t stopped descendants of the Inca from continuing their practices.
Despite not being able to read the knots, modern Peruvians engage in ceremonies to acknowledge the cultural importance of Quipus.
With estimates of surviving Quipus ranging as low as 600, preservation is imperative.
Museums across the world have engaged in efforts to preserve and maintain the remaining Quipus for future generations.
Learning about the Quipus shows the importance of understanding indigenous languages.
In a world where 90% of languages are threatened to go extinct, preserving cultural knowledge is of utmost importance. So much of humanity’s story comes from passed-down cultural knowledge.
Sometimes, all it takes is learning how to tie knots.
Until next time…
