Quipu (also spelled khipu, from Quechua) are assemblages of cords and knots used by Andean societies as tools for recording and communicating information. Best known from the Inca Empire, quipu consist of a primary cord from which pendant cords hang; those pendants may carry subsidiary branches, creating a hierarchical array of strings. Materials commonly include plant fibers such as cotton and animal fibers from camelids (llama, alpaca).
Physical characteristics
Attributes of cords — including color, thickness, spin and ply, twist direction and the manner of attachment to the main cord — were part of the system. Knots occur in several standard forms and their vertical position on a pendant cord is significant. Together these material features form a structured, repeatable set of signals that could be inspected and compared.
Encoding and function
Most scholars agree that many quipu recorded numbers using a base‑10 positional convention: clusters of knots at defined distances represent units, tens, hundreds and higher orders. Beyond numerical accounting, researchers have proposed that color, knot type, cord construction and the patterning of pendant branches could convey administrative categories, place names, personal names or mnemonic cues for oral texts. The idea that some quipu carried narrative or ideographic content remains debated and under active study.
Uses, custodians and context
- Administrative bookkeeping: tribute, labor obligations, inventories and tax tallies.
- Census and demographic records: population figures, households and livestock counts.
- Mnemonic devices: aids for remembering oral histories, calendrical or ritual information.
Trained specialists, often called quipucamayocs in colonial sources, maintained and read quipu for local and imperial officials. Production and interpretation required technical skill and local conventions, so practices varied across regions and periods.
History and modern research
Knotted cords were in use in the Andes before the Inca, and the tradition continued into the early colonial era. Many quipu were lost or destroyed during and after the Spanish conquest, but surviving examples are preserved in museums and archives and provide primary evidence for pre‑Hispanic administration and knowledge systems. Contemporary study combines archaeological analysis, archival research, textile science and statistical approaches; scholars have compiled catalogues and databases to compare structure and provenance. Experimental work and ethnographic analogy have helped clarify how combinations of knots and cord attributes could encode complex information.
Significance
Quipu represent an alternative technology of recording and recordkeeping distinct from writing systems based on graphic signs. They demonstrate how material form and craft knowledge were integrated into administrative practices in the Andes and continue to inform debates about literacy, memory and information technologies in preindustrial societies.