Photo Gallery

The picture shows a quipu, a complex and enigmatic system of knotted cords that was used by the Incas and other earlier Andean cultures for data storage and administration. A quipu consists of a horizontal main cord from which numerous coloured subsidiary cords of varying lengths hang down. The type of knots, the colour and length of the cords, and the position of the knots were used to encode primarily numerical data (such as tax figures or stock levels), but possibly also narrative information and calendar dates. To this day, the exact codes of this ‘knotted script’ have not been fully deciphered, making it one of the most fascinating examples of pre-European writing and administrative history in South America. – Peru – 1976

The image shows how an Inca quipu (khipu) works – a system of knotted strings used to represent numbers in the decimal system. This specific example illustrates an addition problem. The horizontal dotted lines divide the strings into place values (from top to bottom: hundreds, tens, ones). String Ba: 1 hundred, 3 tens, 4 ones = 134 String Bb: 3 hundreds, 2 tens, 9 ones = 329 String Bc: 0 hundreds, 7 tens, 1 unit = 71 String C (total): 5 hundreds, 3 tens, 4 units = 534 The mathematical equation is: 134 + 329 + 71 = 534