INSIDE NMAI


........................ COUNTING SYSTEM THE INKA


COLORED STRINGS AND KNOTS


Inka Khipu, AD 1400–1600. Nasca region, Peru. Cotton, 40.6" x 18.9". NMAI 17/8825


BY CLAU DI A LIMA W


ritten language was a mystery during the Inka civili- zation. Whether the Andean empire might have cre- ated a form of writing is still a major controversy. The Inka’s colored and knotted strings, called khipu, are the center of this debate. Khipu were Inka recording


devices made of wool or cotton strings knotted in various ways and sometimes dyed different colors. The word khipu, from the native Andean language Quechua, means


knot. These devices were composed of a primary cord from which hung secondary cords that conveyed information. Each string carried an unlike type of knot or color. The location of the individual knots, together with the color of the cord, would suggest units of one, 10, 100 or more. The positions and colors would also indicate what was being counted. Khipu could be carried around as a portable record.


The necessity of keeping track of the movement of people and


goods inspired the Inka to develop this device. Khipu were used to record census reports, the movement of goods and people, historical events and religious and military information. Khipu makers may have been accounting administrators with a


sophisticated device or writers with a complicated narrative process. The Khipu will be on display during our upcoming exhibition,


The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire, open June 26, 2015 through June 2018 at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. X Claudia Lima is an intern in the Museum’s Office of Public Affairs.


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 51


PHOTO BY ERNEST AMOROSO


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