Five centuries ago, the Incas ruled the western half of South America with the help of a unique form of writing based on ...

For hundreds of years, Andean people recorded information by tying knots into long cords. Will we ever be able to read them?

Up until the time of the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Inca communities in the Andean highlands used a peculiar form of writing to record key events and keep track of their economic affairs.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- 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 ...

What’s certain is that no one in recent history has been able to fully interpret an Inca khipu. The conquerors’ mnemonic theory held sway for three centuries, and was buttressed in 1923 ...

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 ...

Then, in the early 1990s, Urton, one of the world’s leading Inca scholars, spotted several details that convinced him the khipu contained much more than tallies of llama sales. For example ...

"We suggest that any khipu moving within the state administrative system having an initial arrangement of three figure-eight knots would have been immediately recognizable to Inca administrators ...

Instead of partying during his spring break, Harvard undergrad Manny Medrano stayed on campus and deciphered the meaning of an ancient Inca khipu. Khipus are knotted string devices used by the ...

Gary Urton, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, has re-analysed the complicated knotted strings of the Inca - decorative objects called khipu - and found they contain a seven-bit ...

The khipu didn't originate with the Inca, explains Brokaw. Even today, he adds, Andean shepherds can be seen using a form of khipu to record information about their flocks.