Quipu: Counting with knots in the Inka Empire – 2003
- Record-keeping with knots
- The quipu and writing
- Tawantinsuyu , the Inka Empire
- The Quipu, and the needs of an empire
- Quipus and tribute
- Basic parts of a Quipu
- Making a Quipu
- Quipus and numerical values
- Narrative Quipus?
- Los distintos usos del Quipu
- Quipu of Arica
- Quipucamayoc , Lord of the Knots
- Quipus in the colonial era
- Epilogue
- To know more about Quipus
- Crédits and acknowledgements
Quipu from the Nazca Valley, Peruvian southern coast. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Collections. Photo, taken from C. Arellano, 1999.
Quipu wrapped with a red feather, as he kept when its use is completed. Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú Collections. Photo, taken from C. Arellano, 1999.
Other aspects of the Quipu
An extension of the Primary Cord served as a handle to hold the quipu while manipulated. The quipu was wound with this same cord when it was storing and its end is used to put a tuft of colored wool or feathers, probably to identify it, because many quipus have been found in the Inka tombs, along with sea shells in net bags, with the feather sticking out of the package. Very few quipus from the central and southern coast or Peru carry their Pendants Strings attached to a horizontal and decorated wooden handle, which also serves as a Primary Cord. The meaning of these decorations and their relation to the type of information that would have been recorded in this type of quipu, is yet to be discovered.