For years, historians believed that only trained Inca specialists were responsible for handling the records of emperors. Those records weren’t kept on paper. They were made with cords and knots called ...

Before databases and spreadsheets, people had to find other ways to keep track of information. One of the more interesting recording-keeping systems was the khipu—a cord made of human hair from which ...

Inca bureaucrats recorded all the goings-on in their bustling empire using knotted cords called khipu, where the position and order of the knots represented numbers. They relied on the khipu system to ...

Although the ancient Inca are renowned for their highly organized society and extraordinary skill in working with gold, stone and pottery, few are familiar with the khipu -- an elaborate system of ...

Khipu no. 780 at Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, uses almost 600 cords in complicated arrangements to convey information. Permission to reproduce image provided to the author courtesy of ...

The Inca Empire in South America, one of the most powerful pre-Columbian societies, was known for many innovations — such as the architecture of Machu Picchu, an extensive road network, and a system ...

Your institution does not have access to this book on JSTOR. Try searching on JSTOR for other items related to this book. Memory, Writing, and Record Keeping in the Inka Empire CHAPTER 1 Memory, ...