Knots of Inca Strings

Harvard University researchers Gary
Urton and Carrie Brezine used
computers to come closer to solving a
centuries-old mystery - by
deciphering knotted string used by
the ancient Incas. Experts say one
bunch of knots appears to identify a
city, marking the first intelligible
word from the extinct South American
civilisation. The coloured, knotted
pieces of string, known as khipu,
are believed to have been used for
accounting information. The researchers analysed 21 khipu and found a
3-knot pattern in some of the strings which they believe identifies the
bunch as coming from the city of Puruchuco, the site of an Inca palace.

In a report published in the journal Science, they wrote"We hypothesize
that the arrangement of three figure-8 knots at the start of these khipu
represented the place identifier, or toponym, Puruchuco. ... We suggest
that any khipu moving within the state administrative system bearing an
initial arrangement of three figure-8 knots would have been immediately
recognisable to Inca administrators as an account pertaining to the palace
of Puruchuco."

Most experts believed the khipu represented an accounting system, but
until now, no-one had been able to decipher them.