Page 91 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

80 History and Science of Knots

animals, and weapons; and of course accounts were kept of the goods held in
the storehouses. These data being available made it possible to organize the
state's economy as a whole. When a harvest failed, crops were taken from the
well-filled storehouses in other parts of the country, and during the conquest
the provinces which had to pay most to the Spaniards were resupplied by the
wealthier ones. This could only be organized if the bureaucrats in Cuzco were
able to compare the supplies in the different provinces.
Astronomy
Astronomy played an important role in Incan religion, as the Incas claimed de-
scent from the sun and the moon. They had observation towers, and we know
from the chroniclers that they knew astronomic data like approximations for
the solar year, the lunar month, and the synodic revolutions of Jupiter, Mer-
cury, and Venus. It is reasonable to expect to find these data on quipus. This
idea was examined by Erland Nordenskiold in [11] and [12]. He conjectures
that quipus which were put into graves `... were intended above all as puzzles
for the spirits. The dead man was supplied in the grave with a quipu to occupy
himself with, and to prevent him ... from walking after death.' ([11], p. 36).
After intricate calculations, he finds all the astronomical numbers mentioned
above. Unfortunately, his calculations are not at all suggested by the structure
of the quipu. Many other methods of calculation would be just as probable
or unprobable and would lead to a completely different set of numbers. Even
worse, he does not give any argument for his assumption that the Incas knew
the arithmetical operations he applies. This question will be investigated in
the next section.
Here is a more satisfactory explanation of the significance of grave quipus,
as suggested by Marcia Ascher ([6], p. 68): Only a few of the graves that were
opened by archeologists contained quipus, and usually some of these were
incomplete. These graves may have been the graves of quipu keepers, who
were buried together with the quipus they owned at the time of their death,
and not with quipus produced especially for the burial.
Non-numerical Data
The single data on the quipus are natural numbers. As far as we know, there
is no direct transcription of speech on them. Yet the chroniclers claim that
the quipus were used for writing down laws, peace negotiations, and history.
The quipus designed for this purpose may merely have been mnemonic knots,
such that every knot recalls associations to the quipu's owner which, taken
together, make up the whole history that the owner has learned before. The
technique is the same as we use when we tie a knot into a handkerchief in
order to remember something. In this case the knots do not have a universal
significance, but can only be read by the person who has tied them or was told
about their meaning. There are several ancient specimens with irregularities