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The word Quipu is derived from a Quechua word meaning 'knot' or 'to knot'. [16] The terms quipu and khipu are simply spelling variations on the same word.Quipu is the traditional spelling based on the Spanish orthography, while khipu reflects the recent Quechuan and Aymaran spelling shift.
The quipu controlled every economic part of the large empire. Those in charge of keeping the documentation via the quipu were called quipucamayocs. [29] There are 1,500 strings on the largest quipu. The Sacred City of Caral-Supe has the oldest quipu, which dates from about 2500 BC. [30]
Code of the Quipu is a book on the Inca system of recording numbers and other information by means of a quipu, a system of knotted strings.It was written by mathematician Marcia Ascher and anthropologist Robert Ascher, and published as Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture by the University of Michigan Press in 1981.
Quipukamayuq with his quipu and a yupana, the main instruments used by the Incas in mathematics. The mathematics of the Incas (or of the Tawantinsuyu) was the set of numerical and geometric knowledge and instruments developed and used in the nation of the Incas before the arrival of the Spaniards. It can be mainly characterized by its ...
Quipu (or khipu), string-based recording devices, have been found at Caral, suggesting a writing, or proto-writing, system at Caral–Supe. [39] (The discovery was reported by Mann in Science in 2005, but has not been formally published or described by Shady.) The exact use of quipu in this and later Andean cultures has been widely debated.
Instead, their societies used the quipu, a system of knotted and colored strings, to convey information. Few quipus survive and they have never been fully deciphered. Scholars differ on whether the knotted cords of the quipu were able only to record numerical data or could also be used for narrative communication, a true system of writing.
The chasquis were used to carry the king's orders in short time to the provinces or to the army commanders and bring news and notices important for the kingdom, the war and the provinces to Cusco, the capital of the Inca Empire.
The quipu of the Incas was a system of colored knotted cords used to record numerical data, [45] like advanced tally sticks – but not used to perform calculations. Calculations were carried out using a yupana ( Quechua for "counting tool"; see figure) which was still in use after the conquest of Peru.