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Topic: Quipu

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	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.
		Their work may represent the first identification of a quipu element for a non-numeric concept, a sequence of three figure-of-eight knots at the start of the quipu that seems to be a unique signifier.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Quipu (1390 words)

	Incan knotted code cracked? \| The San Diego Union-Tribune
		Quipus are the mysterious bundles of colored and knotted threads that served as the Inca empire's means of recording information.
		Quipus were used both by high officials to issue instructions and by lower officials to report what they had done.
		Among a cache of 21 quipus recovered from a house, probably that of the chief quipu keeper, seven are clearly related in a three-tier accounting hierarchy.
	www.signonsandiego.com /uniontrib/20050824/news_1c24inca.html (832 words)

	The Quipu (Quipus) Incan Data Structure. 5000 years old Caral
		The Quipu is a system of knotted cords used by the Incas and its predecessor societies in the Andean region to store massive amounts of information important to their culture and civilization.
		Archeologists in Peru have found a "quipu" on the site of the oldest city in the Americas, indicating the device, a sophisticated arrangement of knots and strings used to convey detailed information, was in use thousands of years earlier than previously believed.
		The quipu with its well-preserved, brown cotton strings wound around thin sticks, was found with a series of offerings including mysterious fiber balls of different sizes wrapped in "nets" and pristine reed baskets.
	agutie.homestead.com /files/Quipu_B.htm (985 words)

	Indian Studies - QUIPU (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The nation used a system called quipus, or "talking strings," that were capable of doing the basic operations of the larger and more complicated 20th century machines, according to an article by Ruth Rodriguez Sotomayor.
		By using the quipu, the Incas had access to a wide range of information including population census, crops harvested in various communities, and the amount of wool and grain in the storage houses.
		After several years of training with the quipus, the mathematicians were divided into groups and were sent to four different regions to collect information on astronomy, engineering and agriculture.
	www.indianreader.com /Studies/Quipu.html (242 words)

	Code Of The Quipu
		The authors are Marcia and Robert Ascher, who have studied roughly 200 Inca quipus, demonstrating in the process that the Incas did indeed have a "written" language as well as a surprisingly sophisticated system of mathematical notation.
		A quipu appears to the uninitiated as a meaningless jumble of strings.
		Inca mathematical developments are inherent in quipu notation, which clearly reveals base-of10 positional notation and the use of the zero.
	www.science-frontiers.com /sf022/sf022p02.htm (187 words)

	Anchor Stone International - Untying the knots of Incan codes
		It could also resolve a longstanding controversy by establishing that quipus included a writing system and were not just personal mnemonic devices understood only by the person who made them, as some scholars have maintained.
		If the Puruchuco quipus are indeed records of the labor tax, then one unit at the lowest level would represent one laborer day of work for the state.
		Those who believe the nonnumerical quipus were just personal mnemonic devices cite a 17th-century Jesuit chronicler who reported that each quipu maker could understand only his own quipu, not those of others.
	www.anchorstone.com /content/view/204/33 (2047 words)

	Quipus (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The Quipu were the method by which the Inca consolidated their hold over the kingdom of the four directions.
		Although this instrument was not a mode of writing or a system of calculating numbers, it served as the mnemonic device by which the Incas sent messages, recorded their laws, and decided the fate of conquered territories.
		For example, in a Quipu of weaponry inventory a lance would be first, as it was considered the most honorable weapon by the Inca, then the arrows, bows, and axes, etc.
	www.spanish.sbc.edu /MMLatAm/Quipus.html (718 words)

	AiS Challenge Abstract (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		A quipu was a series of strings tied in knots to represent numbers, words, or even sounds.
		Quipus have been used to tell a story, keep inventory, count livestock, for census, or even looming patterns.
		We have also made multiple quipus that represent ages of the members of our class and the sum in order to understand the layout of the quipu.
	www.challenge.nm.org /archive/01-02/Interims/092.shtml (512 words)

	WowEssays.com - The History Of Quipu
		Quipu is a set of cords and knots tied together, most of them were made of cotton and dyed in one or more colors.
		Some of the positive aspects of quipu are, firstly, they were used to store information, for example, the output of gold mines 1, the amount and kinds of tribute gave by other tribes or the result of a census were all recorded on quipus.
		Quipus are recorded in construction, which are in three-dimensional form.
	www.wowessays.com /dbase/ad1/avw104.shtml (662 words)

	quipus on Encyclopedia.com
		QUIPUS [quipus] or khipus, groups of strings, knotted for tally, which were used by the Inca for keeping records and sending messages.
		Small cords with knots in them were attached to a main cord or a top band; the color of the cord, its place, its size, and the knots in it were all of significance to the record or the message.
		Quipus incas relacionados con origen de ciencias exactas, segÃºn cientÃficos alemanes
	www.encyclopedia.com /html/q1/quipus.asp (240 words)

	The Incas (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The recording was so careful that the people responsible for the issuing of supplies even knew when a new pair of sandals had to be issued to one of the citizens.
		The person 'reading' a quipu (knotted cord) therefore had to know something about it before it could be understood, because yellow might refer to gold if talking about captured booty, or it might mean corn in a record of what had been produced.
		Regularly the information from each community was gathered and stored on quipus, which were kept in large warehouses where the information could be regularly accessed.
	www.newtown.tased.edu.au /computingweb/techsociety/1A/assign1/incas.htm (1030 words)

	Mathematics of the Incas
		The quipu was not a calculator, rather it was a storage device.
		Remember that the Incas had no written records and so the quipu played a major role in the administration of the Inca empire since it allowed numerical information to be kept.
		The quipu consists of strings which were knotted to represent numbers.
	www.su.edu /faculty/steabo/twolford555/incamath.htm (472 words)

	quipu (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Quipu means knot in Quechua, the native language of the Andes.
		The quipu was also useful for census-taking and provided a mass of statistical information for the government.
		Archeologists are now suggesting that authors used the quipu to compose and preserve their epic poems and legends.
	www.sfu.ca /archaeology/museum/laarch/inca/quipue.html (278 words)

	The Quipu - Mathematics and the Liberal Arts
		Most quipus were destroyed by the Spanish, who thought them to be the work of the Devil, but some 550 remain.
		A fascinating puzzle in the article is a pair of quipus which seem to represent data in a similar yet inexplicable way.
		Spanish chroniclers have claimed that the messages on quipus "were as varied as ballads, peace negotiations, laws, and state history." The approximately 550 quipus that still exist show us instead a variety of remarkable ways for organizing structured data.
	math.truman.edu /~thammond/history/Quipu.html (370 words)

	rfc1292
		QUIPU provides a X.500 Directory System Agent (DSA) and a set of Directory User Agents (DUA) aimed at different terminal types and modes of interaction QUIPU was first publicly demonstrated at ESPRIT in November 1988.
		QUIPU is being used extensively in the European PARADISE project, the White Pages Pilot Project and the Australian pilot.
		DISI Working Group [Page 65] RFC 1292 QUIPU January 1992 When comparing attributes of UTCtime syntax, if the seconds field is omitted, QUIPU does not perform the match correctly (i.e., the seconds field in the attribute values should be ignored, but are not).
	ietfreport.isoc.org /idref/rfc1292 (13107 words)

	The Holy Quipus
		We here at The Potato God Worship Center are working hard to resurrect the use of the quipus, as it is much cooler than writing little marks on a piece of paper.
		Once a complete quipu language is developed, we will begin recording The Potato's holy doctrine in one massive wad of strings for future generations to argue about.
		Though we here at The Potato God Worship Center firmly believe that AOL is the work of the antipotato, we have found AOL Instant Messenger to be a useful program and have created the image you see to the right as an AOL IM "Buddy Icon." Feel free to steal it.
	www.angelfire.com /pa2/potatogod/quipus.html (299 words)

	The Quipu, an Incan Data Structure (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		A quipu is an assemblage of colored knotted cotton cords...
		The Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture by M. Ascher and R. Ascher is an extensive elaboration of the logical-numerical system of the quipu.
		With great detail, this system described, compared to the ways data is stored electronically in the 20th century, and for the practicaly and cultural purposes which it served, the quipu is not found wanting.
	www.cs.uidaho.edu /~casey931/seminar/quipu.html (233 words)

	Inca: Calculating an Empire (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The name "quipu" comes from the Quechua (the official Incan language) word for knot.
		While simple quipu might be used by farmers and other common people, the quipu camayoc were specifically trained to record statistical data essential to governing the vast Inca empire.
		The quipu system relied on the memory of the quipu camayoc who organized the cords and knots to correctly read it.
	www.mcdougallittell.com /whist/netact/U4/U4top4.htm (288 words)

	Those Ancient Incan Knots? Tax Accounting, Researchers Suggest - New York Times (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The quantity and positioning of knots in some quipus is agreed to represent a decimal system.
		A quipu is examined in an illustration of an Incan storehouse.
		The quipu could, of course, be recording other things, like sacrifices or head of llama, Dr. Urton said, but units of labor seem to him the most likely.
	www.nytimes.com /2005/08/16/science/16inca.html?ex=1281844800&en=ddd1e87d621386b8&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss (891 words)

	Inca mathematics (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		A quipu had many strings and there had to be some way that the string carrying the record of a particular number could be identified.
		There was even an official delivery service to take to quipus to Cuzco which consisted of relay runners who passed the quipus on to the next runner at specially constructed staging posts.
		It is unclear from Poma's commentary whether it is his version of a device associated with Spanish activities analogous to those of the person depicted or whether he is implying its association with the Incas.
	www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk /~history/HistTopics/Inca_mathematics.html (1730 words)

	Ethnomathematics Digital Library (EDL) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The two databooks provide detailed descriptions of more than 200 quipus, a numerical recording method believed to have been used by the Incas to support their accounting system and possibly their census-taking as well (and perhaps to even preserve information, knowledge, legends, or poems).
		The quipu (khipu), a mathematical tool composed of cords with knots and different colors that served as a data bank for the Incas, was analyzed as a possible system of codified writing.
		Thus, the quipu could have served as a form of written, as well as numerical, language.
	www.ethnomath.org /search/browseResources.asp?type=subject&id=405 (1295 words)

	Math Forum - Ask Dr. Math (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Every quipu has a main cord, thicker than the others, to which are attached other cords, called pendant cords, to each of which may be attached further cords, called subsidiary cords.
		Sometimes there is a top cord, a cord placed near the center of several pendant cords and tied so that when the quipu lies flat it falls in a direction opposite to the pendant cords.
		Zeros are generally represented by a particularly wide space." "The pendant cords on quipus are themselves generally clustered in groups, sometimes with each group consisting of the same set of distinct colors.
	mathforum.org /library/drmath/view/57577.html (478 words)

	Vintage Computer Festival
		The Quipu is a mnemonic knot record that uses a heirarchical system of knotted strings made of wool or cotton to express mostly numeric data, but other information as well.
		Most of the Quipus found in museums were recovered from gravesites in the lower desert regions along the western coast of South America, where the dry environment preserved them.
		Each cord in a Quipu is a double ply piece of string that is spun to create a loop on one end and tied off in a knot on the other.
	www.vintage.org /content.php?id=002 (1480 words)

	languagehat.com: QUIPU.
		One scholar, I forget his name, published a theory a couple of years ago that the Incas used Quipu knots mainly for accounting purposes and that the knots are in essence accounting records.
		Really, the word quipu scarcely enters the English language at all, unlike quinine or the edible seed quinoa, which if its current popularity continues may well end up pronounced kwiNOa in English (KEENwah is preferred for the time being).
		It's been generally assumed that the quipus are (largely) accounting records for decades at least.
	www.languagehat.com /archives/002041.php (2009 words)

	Tahwantansuyo (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		This great organizing empire sprang up without the benefit of a written language; however they did have a way of communicating their intent over the thousands of miles and a network of roads and messengers to speed this process.
		This instrument to record knowledge was called a Quipus it was the Inca's language of commerce.
		The quipus were a series of colored cords with knots tied into them all formed around a main cord which was longer than the rest.
	www.spanish.sbc.edu /MMLatAm/Tahwantansuyo.html (237 words)

	Quipu (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The quipu is a screen based application that launches from the side of the screen in the same manner as a control strip.
		The thread or time line is navigated by means of a scaling zoom that alows the user to quikly move from a view of a year to a view of a day, thus viewing the smaller inciments in the context of the whole.
		The quipu accomodated a series of preset views such as with time gaps between events or without, with knots or without etc.
	www.interaction.rca.ac.uk /alumni/00-02/jez/HTML/crd1/quipu_03.htm (476 words)

	Quipu Knots \| Global Art \| Bright Ring Publishing
		Young artists design a quipu with knots and strings to wear as a necklace, belt or to display, perhaps even coming up with a way to keep track of something that needs to be counted!
		These highly complex counting systems were read by the quipu camayocs ("keepers of the quipus").
		The ancient art of quipu is still practiced today in the Andean mountains of Peru, but most of the ability to read the strings has been lost.
	www.brightring.com /quipu.html (322 words)

	Quipu (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		The quipu was a length of cord held horizontally, from which knotted strings of various thicknesses and colors hung vertically.
		The information recorded varried according to the types of knots, the legth of the string and the color.
		The quipu was a way of keeping track of goods, much the way we keep records written down in books.
	www.digonsite.com /drdig/mesoamerica/14.html (92 words)

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