How did the Inca keep records with knotted strings, and was it a kind of writing?
A bundle of cords, tied in knots, could hold an empire's tax and census figures. Whether it also held words is still an open question.
▶ Start the storyThe Inca kept records with quipus: devices made of knotted cords. A quipu usually consisted of cotton or fiber cords and held information categorised by colour, order and number. The Inca tied knots in a to store numbers, so a bundle of cords could hold figures for tax, and more. Depending on use, a quipu might have anywhere from a few to several thousand cords.
The code worked a little like our own numbers. Position along a cord marked the powers of ten: units near the bottom, then tens, then hundreds. A figure-eight knot stood for one, long knots with extra turns for two to nine, and a gap with no knot meant zero. Quipus often contain sums, such as a cord holding the total of the next several cords, which is one reason scholars are confident that the knots really are numbers.
Step 1: Position
Height on the cord gives units, tens, hundreds
Step 2: Knot type
Long knots for 2 to 9, figure-eight for 1
Step 3: Gap
No knot at a position means zero
Step 4: Sums
One cord may hold the total of other cords
Specialists called , the Inca record keepers, tied and read them. They kept track of , the labour tax, ran a that counted everyone from infants to old blind men over 80, and did basic arithmetic. Inca administration used quipus for taxes, census records, calendars and military organisation.
The mystery is whether quipus ever held words. Scholars disagree: some think the knots could also record sounds or words, others call them a symbol system more like music notation. Since no written record of the Inca Empire from before the Spanish invasion survives, the answer matters. And quipus have not vanished: they remain important items in several modern Andean villages.
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Recap
A quipu is an accounting book in string: position gives the power of ten, the knots there give the digit, and sums repeat along its cords.
💡 A trick to remember it · Read a cord like a ladder: units at the bottom rung, tens above, hundreds higher, and a bare rung means zero.
Surprising fact · A gap with no knot at the right height on a cord means zero.
Sources (1)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (17 claims) cites at least one of these.