Before databases and spreadsheets, people had to find other ways to keep track of information. One of the more interesting recording-keeping systems was the khipu—a cord made of human hair from which ...

A new study challenges widespread notions about khipus, intricate cord and knot information-recording systems, based on Spanish colonial-era sources. Reading time 2 minutes The Inca were a ...

The Inca Empire in South America, one of the most powerful pre-Columbian societies, was known for many innovations — such as the architecture of Machu Picchu, an extensive road network, and a system ...

For more than a millennium, many Andean peoples used an object called a "khipu" (also spelled "quipu" and pronounced "key-poo") to record and communicate information. Khipus were made with cords or ...

Inca bureaucrats recorded all the goings-on in their bustling empire using knotted cords called khipu, where the position and order of the knots represented numbers. They relied on the khipu system to ...

Although the ancient Inca are renowned for their highly organized society and extraordinary skill in working with gold, stone and pottery, few are familiar with the khipu -- an elaborate system of ...

Khipu no. 780 at Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Santiago, uses almost 600 cords in complicated arrangements to convey information. Permission to reproduce image provided to the author courtesy of ...