Quipu Knots: An Ancient Way of Communication

A quipu is a knot recording system which rely on string knots to convey a message. The knots say something.

Every knot on the string mean something and they are usually used to record things which are important for years to come. So for example they are used to collect information like:

·         Collecting data

·         Monitoring tax obligations

·         Calendar information

·         Census records

·         Military guns and gadgets

and so on.

You can consider quipu as the very earlier version of the spreadsheet to keep the important data for future use.

How To Make Quipu Knots

There are various tutorials online telling you how to make quipu knots as well as how to understand them. One of the earliest and good tutorial is this one:

This is a full 6 part video series telling you the nitty-gritty and essentials of Inca knots so you can learn and apply and have fun with your friends and family.

How Does The Quipu Work?

Quipu is just a fancy word of saying knots in a string and those multiple strings combined together represent a number or any form of data.

The data was represented by the number of knots in a string using a positional base of 10 representation.

Who Invented Quipu?

Quipu was not invented by Inca people as many people think.

It was invented by Andean people as a source to represent and carry information for years to come.

Because the Andrean culture is pretty old and the oldest examples of quipu knots are found to be 5000 years old.

Why Is Quipu Considered Mysterious?

Simply because no one else did something like this throughout the history.

This also shows how humans are capable of adapting different styles of communication when there are zero to no options at all.

Because the Quechua language which was native to Andes and Inca people doesn’t have many words to communicate properly and because of that they made use of quipu to preserve the important dates and events.

What Did The Incas Weave?

Inca quipu knots were made of cotton or fur from mammals, like alpacas or llamas.

They use a technique called twining to hand-braided strings.

How Did The Incas Communicate?

Very important thing to understand is that Incan people have their own language called Quechua which they used to speak in face to face communication.

Many people believe that they use quipu knots as a way to communicate themselves but, that’s not true.

They use their mother tongue to communication well with each other.

Only exception is to when they want to record something like a birthday of their children or any important information that might be useful in the future.

This was an old day excel sheet for them.

What Language Did The Inca Speak?

Quechua was the most spoken language throughout the people of Amerind and Incas people.

Having about 8 million native speakers living in the Andes mountains of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, and Colombia. It was the official language of the Incan Empire. A culture which used to communicate distantly using the form of knotted strings called quipu.

How Quipu Knots Are Knotted?

Quipu knots are knotted in different ways to convey a message.

For example some knots are thick but some are small and tiny. And some are of different colors as well.

This all contribute to convey a message and each characteristic of a knot whether it’s a color or size each one of them represent something.

Conclusion

This is how the quipu knots work and made. This type of communication will remain mysterious as there are yet a lot of things un-covered that needs to be find out.