Quipu

According to the manuscript, "ideograms" or symbols with well-known meaning from Incan art were used as either phonograms to represent sounds or logograms to denote words. To represent a sound in this system, a symbol is woven at the beginning of a cord, followed by a number.

The symbol is drawn from Andean iconography and would represent a well-known deity or a concept, and the number would point to which syllable of the word represented by the symbol to pronounce. One example given in the manuscript is a symbol for the god Pachamacac, which consists of the syllables pa , cha , ca , and mac. To represent the sound of pa , the quipu maker would weave the Pachacamac symbol followed by a knot for "one", telling the reader to only read the first syllable of the word Pachacamac.

It is also possible to represent pa by weaving the symbol of Allpachamasca followed by two knots, meaning the second syllable should be read. It is also possible to represent a logogram in this system.

If the woven symbol does not have any accompanying knots, then the symbol serves as a logogram that represent the entire word of the symbol's meaning. Hence, for example, the Pachacamac symbol by itself on a quipu cord would read as pachacamac. This system of mixing symbols with numbers does not exactly mean that quipu is a full writing system, since it relies on non-quipu symbols.

However, the same manuscript also describes a translation of these symbols to distinct numeric values, meaning that it is possible to completely represent a phonogram or logogram with a group of two quipu numbers. There is considerable controversy surrounding this manuscript both from its radical claims about well-known historical figures as well as unwillingness of the owner to allow more than one research team to examine and study it. Many well-respected scholars have cast doubt the authenticity of its content.

Until substantial and independent studies have been done on this document, its revelations about literary quipu will be dubious. Puruchuco was a major regional and administrative site in the central highlands of the Inca Empire. During excavations in the 's a cache of quipu was discovered in an urn near the ruins of the palace. Its location suggested the house or office of a quipu keeper or quipucamayoq.

Recent research into this collection of quipu showed that it contains some form of hierarchical accounting information. Each quipu contains many pendant numeric cords that represent numbers ranging from zero to the thousands. Based on the number of numeric cords, the quipus can be divided into three groups that the scholars labeled levels I, II, and III. A Puruchuco quipu can be divided into multiple sections based on bigger space between groups of pendant cords. On all levels, these sections almost always have the same number of pendant numeric cords arranged in the same color pattern, implying that they all record the same set of goods they may be number of llamas or bushels of corn, but there is no way for us to know.

If one adds up numeric cords in the same position across different sections of a level I quipu, the sum is equal or very close to a single numeric cord in the same position in one section of a level II quipu. This tells us that the accounting information is being summarized at an increasingly higher level, with the level III quipus most likely representing the grand total of goods from the area administered by Puruchuco.

It is very likely that level III quipus were meant to be sent to Cuzco for imperial bookkeeping. In addition, level II and III quipus also have what is called "introductory segments", a number of pendant cords that appear before the numeric cords. In every introductory segment there is always a pendant cord that contains three figure eight E knots.

If you recall from earlier, figure eight knots can only serve as the number one in the last digit of a quipu number, so a sequence of three figure eight knots is clearly not a number. Instead, it is argued that their appearance on level II and III quipus which are possibly bound for the central government imply that the sequence is a "toponym", an place identifier for Puruchuco.

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The three figure eight knots representing Puruchuco is the first non-numeric information identified from quipu cords. While it is tempting to claim that this sequence of three figure eight knots is a logogram, we cannot tell if this toponym carries any linguistic value. In other words, the three knots represent the town of Puruchuco, but we do not know if it can also represent the word "Puruchuco".

However, regardless of whether the three figure eight knot sequence has linguistic value or not, it tells us that it is quite possible to expect non-numeric and perhaps even non-accounting information encoded in quipu. It can be established without doubt that quipu was a living and breathing communication system employed by the Inca Empire successfully to keep track of its financial, tributary, and commercial records. However, much remains to unknown and obscure. Knots were also used in…. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Western Hemisphere. Formerly the capital of the extensive Inca empire, it retains much of its highly crafted early stone architecture, which is typically preserved in….

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