It's about a breakthrough in deciphering Incan khipu. Fox News also has an article on the subject except they state that the Spanish reported that Incan history, good and bad, was knotted on the strings. The Spaniards wrote down some of the stories and destroyed many of the khipu.
posted
I didn't realize the Incans already developed string theory. Stephen Hawking must be spinning his wheels about now!
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
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posted
I'd be interested in seeing what the Incans thought important enough to write down in this way...but it's a ways off, yet. From what I gather, they made strides, and are on the verge of deciphering a proper name within the string knots...but that's a long way from reading.
Still, that "proper name" breakthrough was what gave Champollion (?) the key to deciphering the Rosetta Stone---but that had the text in Greek accompanying the text in hieroglyphics. No such luck here...
posted
The Inca used the quipu (that's the more traditional way of spelling it...) mostly to record census information and keep track of taxes. One of the things a civilization needs to exists is a way to keep records: the Inca are fairly unique in that they did this without written language. Here's a quote from my textbook, "People of the Earth" --
"All the census and other data of the empire were recorded not on tablets but on knotted strings. These quipu were a complex and sophisticated record-keeping system that seems to have been so efficient that it more than made up for the lack of writing. They also were a powerful instrument for codifying laws and providing data for the inspectors, who regularly visited each household to check that everyone was engaged in productive work and living in sanitary conditions."
The Inca really are fascinating to study. They had amazing roads, a vast, socialist-like empire, and a very interesting tradition of split inheritance. They're definetly worth looking at, especially if you write fantasy and want some ideas for your next world...
posted
I think that the quipu were primarily designed to record numerical data, and used secondary characteristics to encode "literary" information like proper names of the parties involved in particular transactions. Traditionalists still use the quipu to record the details of many contracts and significant transactions.
The point being that the "Rosetta Stone" of a history stored on quipu would have been a person's memory of the non-numerical details of the transaction.
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