knotted communications

Belongings and counting.
Belongings and time.
Belongings and accumulation.
Belongings and exchange.

This is an example of a khipu.



According to a Harvard website, “most of the existing khipu are from the Inka period, approx 1400 – 1532 CE. The Inka empire stretched from Ecuador through central Chile, with its heart in Cuzco, a city in the high Andes of southern Peru. Colonial documents indicate that khipu were used for record keeping and sending messages by runner throughout the empire… The word khipu comes from the Quechua word for “knot" and denotes both singular and plural. Khipu are textile artifacts composed of cords of cotton or occasionally camelid fiber. The cords are arranged such that there is one main cord, called a primary cord, from which many pendant cords hang… When khipu were in use, they were transported and stored with the primary cord rolled into a spiral. In this configuration khipu have been compared to string mops…The Inkas used a decimal system of counting. Numbers of varying magnitude could be indicated by knot type and the position of the knot on its cord… More recently, researchers such as Gary Urton have recognized the depth of information contained in non-numeric, structural elements of khipu.” For more, see: http://khipukamayuq.fas.harvard.edu/WhatIsAKhipu.html