Khipus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An ancient method of managing records, employing knotted cords in a variety of hues to encode numbers and stories
2. A traditional Incan system using knotted strings of various colors and lengths to store and communicate information
3. A device composed of knotted cords that was historically utilized by Andean cultures to keep numerical and narrative data

Etymology: The Inca Empire ran its accounts, census counts and perhaps its histories on khipus, arrangements of cords with knots tied at set intervals and colour-coded strands hanging from a main cord. The Quechua word "khipu" means "knot", and the plural "khipus" is simply the English form of that word, borrowed from Quechua, the language of the Andean people who used them. What makes the system remarkable is that it worked without writing in the alphabetic sense. Decimal place value appears in the position of knots along each cord, and the colours and spin directions of the strings seem to have carried further categories of meaning, though scholars still debate how much narrative content, if any, was recorded this way. The word itself therefore names a technology that complicates the idea that writing is required for administration.