quipus

An Inka accounting system that used knotted strings called quipus to record numerical data has long been known to scholars.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

In other words, we are seeing a president of a XXI century country propose to go back to an economical system which had been even overcome long ago, even by the Incas: they might not have had real currency or writing but they had the quipus and efficient central planning with extensive intra regional trading.

The barter economy: Chavez ain't no Milton Friedman 2006

In other words, we are seeing a president of a XXI century country propose to go back to an economical system which had been even overcome long ago, even by the Incas: they might not have had real currency or writing but they had the quipus and efficient central planning with extensive intra regional trading.

11/12/2006 - 11/19/2006 2006

It's been generally assumed that the quipus are largely accounting records for decades at least.

languagehat.com: QUIPU. 2005

[The curaca] listed the main key words with an explanation of how to realize them in quipus.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

According to Cumis there were quipus that differed from the ones used for accounting.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

At conference of Andean scholars this past June, Laura Laurencich Minelli, a professor of Precolumbian studies at the University of Bologna, described what she believes to be a seventeenth-century Jesuit manuscript that contains detailed information on literary quipus.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

In addition to details about reading literary quipus, the document discusses events and people associated with the Spanish conquest of Peru.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

Colgate University's Gary Urton, a specialist in quipus, is skeptical about the manuscript's authenticity.

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996

If much of the historical content is suspect, what about the document's information about quipus?

Talking Knots of the Inka 1996