Quipu

Quipu
Time period	c. 2600 BC – c. 1600 AD
Region	Central Andes Caral–Supe civilization Paracas culture Wari culture Aymara Inca

Quipu (also spelled khipu) are recording devices fashioned from knotted cords historically used by a number of cultures in the central Andes Mountains of South America.^[1]

A quipu usually consisted of cotton or camelid fiber cords, and contained categorized information based on dimensions like color, order and number.^[2] The Inca Empire used quipu for collecting data and keeping records, for monitoring tax obligations, for collecting census records, for calendrical information, for military organization,^[3] and potentially for simple and stereotyped historical "annales".^[2] The cords stored numeric and other values encoded using knots, often in a decimal positional system. A quipu could have only a few or thousands of cords.^[4] The configuration of the quipu has been "compared to string mops".^[5] Archaeological evidence has also shown the use of finely carved wood as a supplemental, and perhaps sturdier, base to which the color-coded cords could be attached.^[6] A relatively small number have survived.

Objects that can be identified unambiguously as quipu first appear in the archaeological record of the first millennium AD,^[7] though it is debated whether the 3rd-millennium BC Caral–Supe civilization developed an analogous system of knotted cords.^[8] Quipu subsequently played a key part in the administration of the Kingdom of Cusco of the 13th to 15th centuries, and later of the Inca Empire (1438–1533), flourishing across the Andes from c. 1100 to 1532. As the region became part of the Spanish Empire, quipu were mostly replaced by European writing and numeral systems, and most quipu were identified as idolatrous and destroyed, but some Spaniards promoted the adaptation of the quipu recording system to the needs of the colonial administration, and some priests advocated the use of quipu for ecclesiastical purposes.^[9] In several modern villages, quipu have continued to be important items for the local community. It is unclear how many intact quipu still exist and where, as many have been stored away in mausoleums.^[7]

Various cultures have used knotted strings unrelated to South American quipu to record information — these include Chinese knotting, and practice by Tibetans, Japanese, and Polynesians.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

Quipu is the Spanish spelling, and the most common spelling in English.^[15] Khipu (pronounced [ˈkʰɪpʊ], plural: khipukuna) is the word for 'knot' in Cusco Quechua. Most Quechua varieties use the term kipu.