The Khipu (knot what you think...)

The khipu (quipu) was an indigenous recording device made from knotted cords that were used for many different purposes for centuries. The history of khipus is a fascinating journey through thousands of years of sophistication and refinement. Join us to find out how khipus were used by the Wari and Inca to manage their empires.

Sources and Bibliography:

[harpsawchord]

The Inca have one of the most unique cultures I've ever read about. The more I learn about them the more I'm just utterly fascinated by how they overcame the terrain that they inhabited and developed technologies in such a clever way.

[lucasmatiasdelaguilamacdon]

Hi, Peruvian and history major here! Fun fact, Khipus were still used under the Spanish viceroyalty. Since the Inca nobility was essentially annexed into the Habsburg Spaniard nobility, and many chieftains and Curacas essentially simply became Dukes, Counts, Bailifs and Lords, many kept using Khipus as means of documenting and archiving information. In fact, many used them in legal procedures and lawsuits, mostly relating to land tenure and native landlords justifying their inheritance and thus their nobility as landlords. I’ve personally seen a lot of affidavits from the Real Audiencia de Lima where official court records from a land dispute cite khipus presented as evidence by one of the parties.

[chrisball]

The fact that khipus, if not writing, represent at least a similar concept makes you wonder if there are other communication mediums existing in the archaeological record that have gone unrecognised because they don't match the typical western understanding of what a written language could look like. Some of the first books I ever read on the Incan civilisation said that khipus were only mnemonic devices used to help officials remember numbers in orally transmitted records. Even at the time I thought that this was obviously contradicted by the historical record, which is full of events where khipus are presented as evidence in disputes and intercepted in transit, revealing plans, etc, stuff that just doesn't make sense if they're only there to act as a memory aid. I'm so glad to see how much progress has been made since then in better understanding khipus and their uses, and look forward to seeing what else comes to light in the coming years.

[reservedcheese]

One impressive thing that every scholarly source seems to skip is that delivering khipus would be hard work but easier and less expensive than books. The chords are lighter, can have more information condensed and most importantly be more resistant to the temperature and humidity changes from running north to south up and down through mountains potentially desserts and jungles . Even modern vehicles have difficulties with those conditions

[VonRibbitt]

As a Peruvian born and raised in Perú, i congratulate you on this video, you explain our culture so well and with respect.

[MikhailTabigay]

I never clicked so fast for a Ancient America’s video.

[QUIRK]

YouTube channels are like Khipus. At their simplest, they can be little more than a yokel and their livestock. But in the hands of a master (like Ancient Americas), they can contain vast amounts of information.

[secret]

If you're sceptical about the amount of information and complexity of khipu, such as that that can be encoded in such knots, consider that our writing system is just curled squiggles, possibly considered themselves knots.

[인화성로쿰]

Sometimes I imagined an alternate universe where Khipu had evolved into its own analogue programming language. Now that imagination has been reinforced.

[Cat-tastrophee]

I was thrilled to hear that progress is being made in interpreting khipus. I remember learning about them in high school, and the general consensus then was that, besides numerical records, khipus were a remnant of a record system lost to time. Please update us on any new developments!

[pimpompoom]

Khipus reminds me of my college classes in Software Data Structures, I think we're only scratching the surface in how much information can/was included in these devices.

[adreabrooks]

I first heard about khipu in the 80s. At the time, we were still computing in BASIC and DOS, and the tasks computers were doing was incredibly simple compared to today. At the time, I looked at the vast collection of (allegedly) numerical knots, and I wondered if there was more to it than *just* numbers - if, perhaps, the array of knots was recording something more complex than just someone's herds or troops. It seems my intuition was closer to the mark than I realized! Thank you for presenting a more modern take on what we know of them!

[andrewbowen]

I wrote a paper and gave a short presentation on the quipu as a senior in college back in 2021, and I haven't stayed up to date on new findings since then. One of the more profound pieces I read about them is how they were the embodiment of the Inca, being made of cloth (which was highly valued), being portable for high amounts of travel, and being highly organized.

[atlasaltera]

I also love that colour comes into play with modifying words. It reminds me of NativLang's Patreon-only video on Aztec writing, as well as contemporary scripts like the Ditema Syllabary

[MajoraZ]

As usual, great work! a REALLY cool fact to add here, and perhaps the single most obscure yet mind blowing bit of info about Prehispanic civilization, is that there were Quipu (or Quipu like devices) up in Mesoamerica in Central Mexico too! In 1579 Diego de Valadés mentions devices used in Tlaxcala which recorded information via knots and colored rope, even comparing them to Andean Quipu. Then, in 1746, Lorenzo Boturini Benaduci talks about hearing, via informants in Tlaxcala of devices called Nepohualtzintzin (an Aztec/Nahuatl word) which seem to be the same thing Valades talks about.

One possible reason these sources are so obscure is because in the 20th century and today, "Nepohualtzintzin" is more associated with an Abacus like device strapped to one's forearm described by David Esparza Hidlago in Computo Azteca, but that device is based on a bunch of unsourced oral interviews, with some indications that Esparza straight up invented the device, his work also being part of a trend of nationalist romanticization of the Aztec during that time in Mexico (Now, i'm the first one to talk about how cool the Aztec are, but a lot of the stuff coming out of that period just isn't scholarly sound and overemphasis the Aztec or even just specific aspects of Aztec culture/history to the erasure of other parts or other cultures for the purpose of presenting a specific national image/history for Mexico at the time). That version of "Nepohualtzintzin" was likely either a speculative hypothetical that got misconstrued, or at worst as an intentional hoax... however, as far as I can tell, the Quipu-like ones are legitmate, though given those 2 accounts I mention are the sole references to them I know of, there's not much to go on.

Beyond that, you bring up Caral as an "urban" center, but I've had conversations with Andean archeologists which dispute it was (I think I may have mentioned this to you before: Maybe it was over email when we were working on videos, or maybe it was in a comment, or maybe I never told you yet!): Their position is basically that while it's certainly a monumental site, there's not much evidence of a sizable permanent population or stratification of denizens, and it was likely more a center that was visited by nearby populations at certain times of year for ceremonies and merely had a small group of priests living there at other times, sort of like the theory is for Göbekli Tepe (as far as I know?). Apparently this is how most large sites went in the Andes for a few thousand years before around in 500BC, Chavín de Huántar (one of the main sites from the Chavin civilization) picked up a permanent population of class specialists and became a proper urban town/city, which kicks off Andean urbanism proper with City-states and such. I'm not sure if this view of things is a niche perspective or is the consensus though, since the Andes isn't my wheelhouse. I can send you more info about it if you're curious.

I also feel compelled to point out that the mass-burning of codices/books in Mesoamerica was not just of Maya examples, but Aztec, Mixtec, Zapotec, and probably Totonac, Otomi, Purepecha, and other texts too. We know that Tenochtitlan and Texcoco both had large royal libraries and it's likely most sizable cities and towns had at least a few to many books. On the flip side, while you note that efforts by Indigenous nobility and royalty to get formal recognition in the Spanish colonial system was unsuccessful in the Andes, in Mesoamerica, this occasionally saw success, though only sometimes and often only partially:

Maybe my single favorite talk/lecture/conference i've ever seen was a presentation by John Chuchiak from March 26th 2021, I believe at a Maya at the Lago conference, which was all about the different legal attempts by Maya rulers and nobles to get formal titles of Spanish nobility and heraldry, and the difficulties they had in contrast to the Aztec, where differences in succession, land ownership, etc in the two societies led to the process being more difficult (though not wholly fruitless) for Maya elites vs Aztec ones. There's also a similar dynamic of presenting existing codices as evidence in such court cases, in one case even privately commissioning their own heraldic emblems with both Spanish and Mesoamerican iconography! In general, ANY talk from Dr. Chuchiak is worth trying to seek out, he's an amazing presenter and even when it's a topic I'm not interested in, his storytelling and oration gets me hooked.

Lastly, i'm glad you bring up Urton, Medrano, and Hyland's work: Obviously, my thing is more Mesoamerica, but by far the most interesting thing i've read on Quipu was the "We thought the Incas couldn't write. These knots change everything" article by NewScientist which is a rare example of an enthralling and informative popsci article on Prehispanic archeology (shoutout also to Lizzie Wade's work at Science), and covers their work, including some of the same research you mention in the video. I'll check your bibliography for full papers about them, since I've wanted to dig them ever since I read the article, but if people want more info about their research without committing to a full academic paper, I highly suggest people check out that Newscientist piece: The extra info on and way they describe Hyland's 2017 work in particular is REALLY cool

[barbararowley]

I’ve found khiou’s fascinating for years. It’s such a clever form of information recording (to avoid the potentially controversial w word). Easier and far more portable than carving on stone, lighter than clay tablets, more stable than wax tablets. So they seem to share a niche with paper/bark/papyrus.

[anaxis]

I was a kid in the early 80's when I first read about quipu in a Natl. Geographic, found in a burial site. It mentioned only the theory about quipu being used for accounting, and that they were extremely rare. I was fascinated by the mystery & possibilities of how they could've been used, and always felt sad that thinking we would never know for sure. 40 some years later, and in a few minutes I learned more than I ever dreamed I would.
Thank you for this one!

[IndianTigress]

As an Indian-American I absolutely admire Mexico and Mesoamerica and love learning about their shared history, from the Tikal-Calakmul wars, to the rise of the Nahua kingdoms in Nicaragua and El Salvador, fascinating history. They also gave the world tomatoes, avocados, vanilla, maize, jalapenos, tortillas, tamales, guacamole sauce, and chocolate. And in Peru's case they gave us the potato (loved that episode). Subbed, keep doing what you're doing and much love to Peru and the Mesoamerican nations 🇮🇳❤🇵🇪🇲🇽🇬🇹🇳🇮🇭🇳🇸🇻

[ImposterMonarch]

it is so saddening to learn of the downfalls of so many glorious native peoples, but the mere fact that 8 million people speak quechua even today is heartachingly reassuring

[feralfoods]

Knot what i expected. What a complex system of communication, almost like a secret code. very interesting. thank you for the research and presentation.