Page 82 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

CHAPTER5

THE PERUVIAN QUIPU

Antje Christensen

Introduction

In many different cultures throughout the world and in different epochs, knots
served as symbols to denote numbers. In the most simple systems, a number
was symbolized by tying the appropriate number of simple knots into a string.
Several cultures of the New World, such as the Zuni of New Mexico and the
Peruvian Incas, developed more sophisticated systems. The system of the Pe-
ruvian Incas is the main subject of this text. It not only allowed them to
symbolize high numbers in a way that made them easily recognizable, but also
it provided the structure to put these numbers in a meaningful order. Enclos-
ing information into knotted strings became one of the most important cultural
techniques in the highly developed Incan culture, playing a role comparable to
that of writing in .other cultures. We do not know much about the Incas, as
their culture was completely destroyed by the European conquerors within a
few decades after the first contact. Yet we can deduce from European writings
contemporary to the conquest, and from archeological finds, that science in
general and mathematics and astronomy in particular were quite advanced in
the Incan culture. While we do not have much direct information about Incan
science, we share with the Incas the ability of mapping reality into the ab-
stract world of numbers and structure. Within this world we have a chance to
reconstruct their ways of thinking. Hence their knotted strings could be a rich
source of information on their culture, if we were able to read and understand
them profoundly.

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