Aug
31
2010
The Quipus [English]
The quipu (Quechua: khipu, ‘knot’) was a mnemonic system using wool or cotton ropes and knots
of one or more colors developed in the Andes. Although it is known that it was used as an accounting system by officials of the Inca Empire, could have been used as a form of writing, a hypothesis that says the engineer William Burns Glynn.
Were used by the quipu kamayoc (khipu kamayuq), sages of the Inca empire.
The quipus formed a mnemonic system by which record the necessary information. It could be news census, amounts of products and keeps stored in state warehouses.
Quipus instruments are still used as mnemonics in the Indian villages where they serve to register the products of crops and animal communities.
The Inca emperor, had 30 people in big cities take charge of the accounts, then bring them to the emperor’s messengers who had specialized staff in the interpretation of the quipu.
It is believed that the position of the knots in the cord could be interpreted as a decimal system of mathematics. For example, counting from the tip, find the knot is equivalent to 10,000, then 1,000, 100, and ultimately drives.
