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	WhatIsAKhipu
		Khipu are textile artifacts composed of cords of cotton or occasionally camelid fiber.
		Khipu are often displayed with the primary cord stretched horizontally, so that the pendants appear to form a curtain of parallel cords, or with the primary cord in a curve, so that the pendants radiate out from their points of attachment.
		When khipu were in use, they were transported and stored with the primary cord rolled into a spiral.
	khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu /WhatIsAKhipu.html (338 words)

	Quipu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Quipu or khipu were recording devices used in the Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region.
		Khipu is the word for "knot" in the Cusco dialect of the Quechua language (the native Inca language); the kh is an aspirated k.
		It could be a toponym for the city Puruchuco (near Lima), or the name of the khipu keeper who made it, or its subject matter, or even a time designator.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Khipu (1354 words)

	Khipu -- Facts, Info, and Encyclopedia article (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Khipu, or quipa, or quipu were recording devices used during the (Click link for more info and facts about Inca Empire) Inca Empire and its predecessor societies in the (Click link for more info and facts about Andean) Andean region.
		The term khipu is an orthographic rendering of the (A member of a South American Indian people in Peru who were formerly the ruling class of the Inca empire) Quechua word for "knot".
		Many historians, however, have attempted to convert the khipu into a decipherable language because the (Click link for more info and facts about Tahuantinsuyu) Tahuantinsuyu was such a powerful Empire prior to the conquest of Spain; discovering the Incan's side of the story could possibly reveal an entire new link to the past.
	www.absoluteastronomy.com /encyclopedia/k/kh/khipu.htm (714 words)

	Read about Khipu at WorldVillage Encyclopedia. Research Khipu and learn about Khipu here! (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		This is especially important as there is no surviving record of a written Quechua from before the Spanish invasion, something which is extremely rare for such an advanced civilization.
		Quipucamayocs were not the only members of Inca society to use the khipu.
		Members of the ruling class were usually taught to read the khipu as part of their education.
	encyclopedia.worldvillage.com /s/b/Khipu (697 words)

	Inca May Have Used Knot Computer Code
		Khipu can be immensely elaborate, composed of a main or primary cord to which are attached several pendant strings.
		Without a "khipu Rosetta" it will be hard to convince the sceptics who insist that, at most, the knotted strings may be complicated mnemonic devices to help oral storytellers to remember their lines.
		If they are simple memory machines, khipu would not constitute a form of written language because they would have been understood only by their makers, or someone trained to recall the same story.
	www.rense.com /general38/knot.htm (1303 words)

	Gene Expression: Incan Khipus (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Khipu on level III could represent either a set of instructions issued to the lord of Puruchuco from the provincial governor or reports on local Puruchuco resources to be sent to the provincial governor.
		We suggest that khipu may have contrasting number qualities depending on whether they represented instructions coming from the state administration to a local accounting center or were records produced within a local accounting center with regard to existing community resources.
		If a khipu account was compiled from within some local administrative center to be sent upward to higher level officials, counts of resources could be expected to have reflected the vagaries of the natural distribution of items in society.
	www.gnxp.com /blog/2005/08/incan-khipus.php (2234 words)

	DQ University - California's Two Year Accredited Tribal College (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		But although the Spanish considered khipu dangerous, idolatrous objects and destroyed as many as they could, scholars have long dismissed the notion that khipu (or quipu, as the term is often spelled) were written documents.
		Khipu, by contrast, are three-dimensional arrays of knots.
		Locke showed that the numerical khipu were hierarchical, decimal arrays, with the knots used to record 1's on the lowest level of each string.
	www.dqu.cc.ca.us /pages/news/khipu.html (1786 words)

	AE book review search
		The issue under consideration is the degree of narrativity of the khipu, an object made of dyed strings knotted and hung from a horizontal cord.
		No unanimous conclusion is reached in this volume, but all contributors concur that information was encoded on khipu by means of patterned variation in the material used (the color of strings; their dyeing, spinning, and plying; the type and number of knots).
		Salomon emphasizes khipu as accumulative histories corresponding to multiple makers and events, thereby containing components of differing date; he emphasizes “use-life.” Salomon interprets the display of “patrimonial” khipu (khipu that can no longer be read) in the community he studied as “currently functioning documents of civil legitimacy” (p.
	www.aaanet.org /aes/bkreviews/result_print.cfm?bk_id=1711 (708 words)

	Table of Contents and Excerpt, Urton, Signs of the Inka Khipu
		Khipu (knot; to knot) is a term drawn from Quechua, the lingua franca and language of administration of the Inka Empire (ca.
		A recent discovery of thirty-two khipu in burial chambers in the northern Peruvian Andes is consistent with the presumed funerary disposal of these devices (see Urton 2001 for a discussion of the possible significance of this context for khipu disposal).
		Khipu were one of the principal sources of information used by the Spaniards as they began to compile records pertaining to the former inhabitants of the empire.
	www.utexas.edu /utpress/excerpts/exurtsig.html (8380 words)

	Inca Knots
		Evidence suggesting khipu could be interpreted by anyone trained to read them came two weeks ago after hundreds of hours of painstaking analysis of 32 khipu discovered in 1997 among 225 mummy bundles in a rock overhang in northern Peru.
		For example, khipu were invariably made from cotton or wool, tasking the khipu maker to choose one or the other when creating a knotted string.
		Urton's conclusions depends on being able to translate khipu, which would be simple with the discovery of a South American equivalent of the Rosetta Stone -- the basalt slab found at Rosetta, near Alexandria in Egypt, that allowed scholars to decipher an Egyptian hieroglyphic text from demotic and Greek translations.
	aeroman.de /html/inca_knots.html (1126 words)

	Not just knots: the secrets of khipu
		A khipu is a set of strings in various colours, each attached to a common horizontal string, and each embellished with a series of knots.
		The lowest level khipu may have been used, for example, to keep track of tax payers' labour at a local level, and the highest level may have been used by a regional or provincial administrator.
		Khipu at the same level are very similar, suggesting that the Inka were conscientious accountants, keeping duplicates of their records.
	plus.maths.org /latestnews/may-aug05/khipu (1153 words)

	Breaking News!
		If khipu is indeed the medium of a writing system, Dr. Gary Urton of Harvard says, this is entirely different from any of the known ancient scripts, beginning with the cuneiform of Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago.
		Dr. Patricia J. Lyon of the Institute of Andean Studies in Berkeley, Calif., was unmoved from her position that the khipu were mnemonic devices, personalized visual and tactile cues for the recall of the information retained in the memory of the maker.
		If that was the case, the khipu would not be a form of writing because they would have been understood only by their makers, or someone familiar with the same memorized accounts or narrative.
	www.neara.org /MiscReports/08-12-03.htm (1563 words)

	Table of Contents and Excerpt, Quilter and Urton, Narrative Threads
		In the Andes, the keepers of the khipu, the Inka, have not appealed to the romantic sensibilities of Westerners as have the Maya.
		Khipu, however, are expressions of linearity, made up of cords, which are at the same time three-dimensional objects.
		An assumption that khipu were merely utilitarian devices—like tying a string around a finger so as not to forget to feed the neighbor's cat—may be partly to blame for lack of interest in them.
	www.utexas.edu /utpress/excerpts/exquinar.html (2705 words)

	CBC News: Anthropologists unravel message of Inca's knotted strings (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Khipu from the Museum for World Culture in Göteborg, Sweden, is said to be from Nasca, Peru.
		Researchers speculated Inca accountants used khipu to share census, finance and military figures, but it was difficult to interpret the system.
		Some of the khipu at burial sites had 730 strings grouped in 24 sets, which equals the number of days and months in two years.
	www.cbc.ca /story/science/national/2005/08/11/Inca-strings050811.html (362 words)

	UB Reporter: UB linguist searches for new meaning of Inca informational device
		Brokaw doesn't adhere to the strict view held by some researchers that the khipu is solely mnemonic in nature, instead maintaining the possibility that these intricate specimens are historiographic in nature.
		He does believe, however, that some of the specimens—about 600 khipu survive in museums or private collections—do appear to be non-numerical.
		The khipu didn't originate with the Inca, explains Brokaw, and even today Andean shepherds can be seen using a form of khipu to record information about their flocks.
	www.buffalo.edu /reporter/vol35/vol35n14/articles/Brokaw.html?print=1 (564 words)

	Faculty of Arts & Sciences: News and Events
		This khipu from the Museum for World Culture in Göteborg, Sweden, has 332 pendant strings and is said to be from Nasca, Peru.
		The values on the khipu appear to sum upward and subdivide downward, suggesting the addition or subtraction of values as the khipu moved up and down the ranks of the Inka bureaucracy.
		While anthropologists lack the ability to decipher khipu precisely, Urton's previous research has led him to argue that the instruments may also have been used as calendars: Ancient Peruvian burial sites have yielded khipu with 730 strings grouped in 24 sets -- exactly equivalent to the number of days and months in two years.
	www.fas.harvard.edu /home/news_and_events/releases/khipu_08112005.html (572 words)

	The world's top khipu websites
		The khipu or quipu were recording devices used used in the Inca empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region.
		Inca administrators seemed to be the primary owners of the khipu, using it as a way to keep track of their resources like livestock and farming.
		Many historians, however, have attempted to convert the khipu into a decipherable language because the Incan Empire was such a powerful Empire prior to the conquest of Spain; discovering the Incan's side of the story could possibly reveal an entire new link to the past.
	dirs.org /wiki-article-tab.cfm/khipu (724 words)

	Khipu Resources on the Web and in Print (Quipu)
		The khipu is a recording device made of many-colored woven strings invented by South American Indians in pre-Incan times.
		The Inca had no written language, so the ability to interpret the non-mathematical khipus that survive would be invaluable in itself and for understanding of the Incan civilization.
		I have switched over in the case of 'khipu', but the Incan Empire is too strongly ensconsed in common usage to succumb to the modification.
	www.angelfire.com /mo/zdawg/Khipu/Khipu.html (576 words)

	USATODAY.com - Incas' secret world untangled (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		A computerized comparison of khipu hidden in the remains of a high-ranking Inca's home suggests those knotted cords held a tally of the empire's demands for tribute labor from a town called Puruchuco.
		The cache of khipu from the Puruchuco site was uncovered in 1956 but was meaningless before the computer analysis, the research team reported in the journal Science.
		Unraveling the meaning of khipu from such a translation would tell scholars what meaning — whether it be llamas, labors or other tributes — is attached to the numbers on many other strings.
	usatoday.com /tech/science/discoveries/2005-10-12-incan-tech_x.htm?... (1020 words)

	MSNBC - Possible pattern found in Incan strings (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Details of the information from the local khipu was coded onto the others intended for travel.
		There are between 650 and 700 khipu in museums, he explained, and about two-thirds of them have the knots organized in a decimal system indicating their use in some sort of accounting.
		There are reports of the Inca telling the Spanish conquerors that the khipu told history, good and bad.
	www.msnbc.msn.com /id/6448213/did/8914716 (907 words)

	UB Professor Works to Unravel Mysteries of Khipu: Colored, Knotted Strings Used by the Ancient Incas - UB NewsCenter
		Deciphering the mysteries of the khipu, which consists of a primary cord from which hang pendants of cords, depends upon researchers discovering a Rosetta Stone of sorts that would allow them to decode the meaning of the cords and knots.
		Even today, he adds, Andean shepherds can be seen using a form of khipu to record information about their flocks.
		In fact, Brokaw says the first step in understanding the khipu is "to recognize that it was linked to genres of Andean discourse, powerful discursive paradigms" that were retained by the indigenous chroniclers in the organizational structure they employed in writing down the lineage of the Inca kings.
	buffalo.edu /news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=65030009 (624 words)

	TranslatorsCafe.com Forums : From Language to Literature : An Inca binary code language? (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		A definitive way to crack the intractable code would be the discovery of what Urton calls a 'Rosetta khipu', something similar to the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphics from the Rosetta stone: a basalt slab unearthed in Egypt in 1799 with text in Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphs, allowing linguists to decode the language.
		While searching, Urton is attacking the khipu code with 21st century technology, creating a database packed with any possible data on each khipu: length of the main string, number of pendants, details on the knots, spin, ply of each string, and so on, in order to search for common patterns.
		Researchers are moving toward understanding the communicative power of khipu, the Inca's enigmatic knotted strings, which wove an empire together.
	www.translatorscafe.com /cafe/MegaBBS/forumthread971.htm (811 words)

	The Khipu: String, and Knot, Theory of Inca Writing (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Of all the major Bronze Age civilizations, only the Inca of South America appeared to lack a written language, an exception embarrassing to anthropologists who habitually include writing as a defining attribute of a vibrant, complex culture deserving to be ranked a civilization.
		In the conventional view of scholars, most khipu (or quipu, in the Hispanic spelling) were arranged as knotted strings hanging from horizontal cords in such a way as to represent numbers for bookkeeping and census purposes.
		Patricia J. Lyon of the Institute of Andean Studies in Berkeley, Calif., was unmoved from her position that the khipu were mnemonic devices, personalized visual and tactile cues for the recall of the information retained in the memory of the maker.
	werwolf.ee.ryerson.ca:8080 /~elf/abacus/inca-khipu.html (1652 words)

	Khipu : Quipu
		The khipu (or quipu, an older orthographic rendering of the Quechua word for "knot") were recording devices used used in the Inka empire and its predecessor societies in the Andean region of South America.
		A khipu usually consists of colored cotton cords with numeric values encoded by knots in the base-10 positional system.
		Use of the khipu was suppressed after the early 16th century conquest of the Inka empire by the Spanish conquistadors, but more primitive uses of the khipu survive in the Peruvian highlands.
	www.fastload.org /qu/Quipu.html (124 words)

	Encyclopedia: History of the world (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		Even the metal poor Inca had metal tipped plows, at least after the conquest of Chimor.
		However, very little archaeological research has been done in Peru so far and almost all the Khipus (recording devices in the form of knots used by the Incas) were burned in the Spanish conquest of Peru.
		Late Intermediate Period Cultures Chimor (also Kingdom of Chimor) was the political grouping of the Chimú culture that ruled the northern coast of Peru, beginning around 850 and ending around 1470.
	www.nationmaster.com /encyclopedia/History-of-the-world (10375 words)

	ScienceDaily Books : Signs of the Inka Khipu : Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records (The Linda Schele ... (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-07)
		In this book, Gary Urton sets forth a pathbreaking theory that the manipulation of fibers in the construction of khipu created physical features that constitute binary-coded sequences which store units of information in a system of binary recordkeeping that was used throughout the Inka empire.
		Urton begins his theory with the making of khipu, showing how at each step of the process binary, either/or choices were made.
		He then investigates the symbolic components of the binary coding system, the amount of information that could have been encoded, procedures that may have been used for reading the khipu, the nature of the khipu signs, and, finally, the nature of the khipu recording system itself--emphasizing relations of markedness and semantic coupling.
	www.sciencedaily.com /cgi-bin/apf4/amazon_products_feed.cgi?Operation=ItemLookup&ItemId=0292785399 (2154 words)

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