The Incas and their quipus

Who were the Incas? The Incas were a small tribe of South American Indians who lived in the city of Cuzco, high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. Around 1400 CE, a neighboring tribe attacked the Incas, but the Incas won. This was the beginning of the Inca Empire. In only 100 years, the Inca Empire grew so big that it expanded into what are now the modern countries of Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Argentina.

Geography Another thing that helped the Inca Empire grow so rapidly was its geography. The empire had three main geographical regions: 1. The Andes Mountains 2. The Amazon jungle 3. The coastal desert Teacher’s notes: Amazon jungle: The Incas must have entered the jungle occasionally, as they knew about the valuable things that could be found in the Amazon, such as wood, fruit, and natural medicines. However, they never established settlements there. Coastal desert: Between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean is a coastal desert 2000 miles long and from 30 to 100 miles wide. However, it was not completely barren; a few fertile strips occur where small rivers and streams run from the Andes mountaintops to the sea. The Incas traded with the people who lived there. Each was a natural barrier. The Incas made their home between the jungle and the desert, high in the Andes Mountains of South America.

Quipu Messages often had to be secret and runners would therefore carry a quipu, a secret message made of knots and colored string. The quipu would be handed from runner to runner until it reached its destination. There a special quipu reader would decipher the message. The relay system of communication allowed the Sapa Inca and his assistants to run the empire effectively. Teacher’s notes: The quipu was commonly used as a system of measurement. The color of the strings and the distance between knots all conveyed meaning. One of the specialized professions in the Inca Empire was that of quipu reader. Very few people were trained in this profession.

Quipu Teacher’s notes: The quipu was commonly used as a system of measurement. The color of the strings and the distance between knots all conveyed meaning. One of the specialized professions in the Inca Empire was that of quipu reader. Very few people were trained in this profession.

Quipu Teacher’s notes: The quipu was commonly used as a system of measurement. The color of the strings and the distance between knots all conveyed meaning. One of the specialized professions in the Inca Empire was that of quipu reader. Very few people were trained in this profession.

Quipu This writing system is the only known precolumbian writing system in South America—well, perhaps writing system isn't quite the correct phrase. But quipus were clearly an information transmittal system, and not just for the Inca. Instead of a clay tablet impressed with triangles like cuneiform, or a piece of paper with symbols written on it like Egyptian hieroglyphs, a quipu is essentially a collection of wool and cotton strings tied together, a knotted page of information which could be easily transported and easily translated across the wide expanses of South America.

Quipu Cuneiform Quipu Hieroglyphics

Quipu While scholars have yet to translate the quipu, we do know that information was embedded in the quipu in a number of different ways. The strings in a quipu were dyed in many different colors, and the strings are connected in many different ways, with a wide variety and number of simple and complex knots. Together the type of wool, the colors, the knots and the joins hold information that was once readable by several South American societies. Today we have only an inkling of what stories these amazing threads might be holding for us.

Quipu

Quipu Effects of the Spanish Conquest Quipus became known to Europeans in the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived in South America. The Inca empire used quipus to communicate a wide variety of political, economic, genealogical and other kinds of information to keep their enormous empire working.

Quipu According to 16th century historians, quipu were carried throughout the empire by relay riders, called chasquis, who brought the information along the Inca road system, keeping the Inca rulers up to date with the goings on in their far-flung empire.

Quipu It must be said: it was an incalculable loss to global society when the Spanish arrived in Cuzco in 1532. The conquistadors, still members of the Spanish Inquisition, viewed the quipu with great suspicion; as well they might, using religious prejudice and superstition to stamp out what they perceived as dangerous heresy, including the use of quipu.

Quipu Thousands of quipus were destroyed in the 16th century. Today there are only roughly 300 quipus which were preserved or have been discovered since that time.

Quipu Quipu Meanings Quipus have not yet been deciphered, but some educated guesses about what they represent have been attempted. Certainly they were used for administrative tracking of tributes and records of the production levels of various farmers and artisans throughout the empire. The quipu may have represented maps of the pilgrimage road network and/or they may have been mnemonic devices to help oral historians remember ancient legends or the genealogical relationships so important to Inca society.

Quipu In teams of 4 people maximum, you are going to encode a story using a quipu. Use the worksheet and follow the instructions...

Quipu: what do you need to do? Once completely done, think of the following: How could we improve the system? Why do you think the Conquistadors perceived quipus as suspicious? To what extent the loss of the quipu is a loss to the whole of humanity? Give other examples of knowledge lost to us.

Quipu Sources This glossary entry is part of the About.com Guide to the Inca Empire, and the Dictionary of Archaeology. Beynon-Davies, Paul 2007 Informatics and the Inca. International Journal of Information Management 27 306–318. Fossa, Lydia 2000 Two khipu, one narrrative: Answering Urton's question. Ethnohistory 47(2):453-468. Niles, Susan A. 2007 Considering quipus: Andean knotted string records in analytical context. Reviews in Anthropology 36(1):85-102. Topic, John R. 2003 From Stewards to Bureaucrats: Architecture and Information Flow at Chan Chan, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 14(3):243-274. Quilter, Jeffrey and Gary Urton. 2002. Narrative Threads: Accounting and Recounting in Andean Khipu. University of Texas Press: Austin. Urton, Gary and Carrie J. Brezine 2005 Khipu Accounting in Ancient Peru. Science 309:1065-1067.