Quipus

A quipus, also known as a knot-record was uses by the Incas and other civilizations to keep records and communicate information to one another. The purpose of the quipus was to record a different number of things. The cords on the quipus had numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. Each knot in the strings represented a number. These strings were made from either cotton or wool, some larger quipus have as many as 1500 strings. The knots meant all kinds of things some knots meant a number from 1 to 9 by the turns of the string. The “granny” knot, is what they called a knot that equaled 10. A string missing meant 0. If one quipus joined another it would have a specific meaningful sequence. We might be able to see these quipus in Cuzco, the Inca capital, where they did these.