Today in museums and private collections there are only 600 miraculously preserved copies of the ancient kipu: Archaeologist Robert Ascher at Cornell University believes that about 20% of them are not numeric. Back in 1981, he suggested that kipu is a special form of writing.
In the photo you can see the kipa - an ancient counting system of the Incas, which consists of complex rope weaves and knots made of alpaca or llama wool or cotton (in Quechua, khipu means “knot”, “tie knots”, “count”). One bale can contain from several to 2500 threads of different colors and sizes.
The way to write on the bale. The nodes in the upper third represent hundreds, in the middle, tens, and in the lower third, ones. A - base cord, B1 – B3 - separate pendants used for recording. Drawing from the book of the Czech ethnographer Miloslav Stingl “The State of the Incas. Glory and death of the sons of the sun"
The oldest kipu dates back to around 3000 BC. e., and the first written mention of kipu refers to 1533 (this system of counting was described in his letter by the Spanish conquistador Hernando Pizarro).
Kipu was widespread in the Inca Empire. According to the Spanish chronicler José de Acosta, "the whole empire was ruled by means of the kipu." With the help of the kipu, for example, the number of lamas, the number of soldiers or the harvested harvest was taken into account, the population was census, and taxes were recorded; kipu were even used as a calendar.
The Incas developed a whole system for reading information. The main thread of the kipu was the beginning of the story. Thinner threads were attached obliquely to it, which were used to record data. The position of the knot on the cord showed the numerical order (tens, hundreds, thousands), and the number of knots determined the prime numbers. But in order to read the knotted message, one had to understand not only the knots and their position on the rope, but also know the designations of each color. So, for example, red meant an army, an army, white - silver, yellow - gold. All the information was recorded by specially trained officials - kipukamayoki - and transmitted to the center, that is, in Cuzco.
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"Knot letters" were delivered by professional couriers - chaska runners - along the Imperial Inca road system. Convenience during transportation is an important advantage of the kipu, because messages were sometimes delivered hundreds of kilometers away, and parchment or tree leaves, which served as paper for the Incas, were poorly suited for this. The bale could be crumpled and placed in a bag.
We have survived many copies of the Inca kippu, of various sizes and purposes. There is even a dedicated khipu database (see the Khipu database project). However, these “letters” are important not only to decipher, but also to preserve them. Kippu are made from natural fibers, so they need special temperature, humidity and protection from fading. Store the bale on horizontal panels covered with paper, neutral in acidity. The cords are treated with special brushes and protected from insects.
Nikolai Nikolaevich Nepomniachtchi