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

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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