quipu
Sign in to savethumb|259x259px|Quipu in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Quipu ( ), also spelled khipu (, ; , ), are record-keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire.
AI overview
Quipu are record-keeping devices made from knotted cords that were used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire. They matter because they represent an important system for recording and preserving information in a region where written language was not developed in the traditional sense.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Writing system.region
- Central Andes Caral–Supe civilization Paracas culture Wari culture Inca
- Writing system.name
- Quipu
- Writing system.altname
- Khipu
- Writing system.sample
- Inca Quipu.jpg
- Writing system.caption
- An Inca quipu, from the Larco Museum in Lima, Peru.
- Writing system.ipa note
- none
via Wikipedia infobox
Article
26 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Purpose
- Numeric usage
- Non-numeric usage
- History
- Possible proto-''quipus''
- Wari Empire
- Inca Empire
- Spanish Empire
- Contemporary social importance
- Tupicocha, Peru
- San Cristóbal de Rapaz, Peru
- Jucul, Peru
- Collections and number of ''quipus''
- Preservation
- In popular culture
- Film and television
- Literature
- Games
- References
- Footnotes
- Bibliography
- External links
- ''Quipu'' database projects
- Virtual ''quipu'' exhibitions
- Media coverage
thumb|259x259px|Quipu in the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. Quipu ( ), also spelled khipu (, ; , ), are record-keeping devices fashioned from knotted cords. They were historically used by various cultures in the central Andes of South America, most prominently by the Inca Empire.
A quipu usually consists of cotton or camelid fiber cords, and contains categorized information based on dimensions like color, order, and number. The Inca, in particular, used knots tied in a decimal positional system to store numbers and other values in quipu cords. Depending on use and the amount of information stored, quipus can have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords.