For more than a millennium, many Andean peoples used an object called a "khipu" (also spelled "quipu" and pronounced "key-poo") to record and communicate information.
textual info, though. Like, something you can read.
I think they probably do, but like other early forms of record keeping, the focus definitely seems to be numbers. IIRC there are some knots that just don’t look like numbers.
The Chinese also used knots to record details of events, not just numbers, but the system that is used to decode the knots was complex enough that it functioned like a cipher - without already knowing how they did it, there’s just no way you’d be able to work it out.
I can’t recall the details but I think it’s covered in the Ancient Americas video on the khipu on youtube.
By “textual info” I mean plain language, like we’re using now. It’s theoretically possible to encode it in khipu, not just for Quechua but for any other language; but doing it in a practical way is another can of worms.
Instead what I think that they used is what the video calls a “semasiographic system” - there are standardised codes for almost everything worth registering (from a bureaucratic PoV), and the officer/kamayuq is expected to be able to decode it.
For a silly example using English, it would be a lot like writing “Jn Smth in ptt 20 mze 35” and then reading it as “John Smith stored 20kg of potatoes and 35kg of maize here”.
I think they probably do, but like other early forms of record keeping, the focus definitely seems to be numbers. IIRC there are some knots that just don’t look like numbers.
The Chinese also used knots to record details of events, not just numbers, but the system that is used to decode the knots was complex enough that it functioned like a cipher - without already knowing how they did it, there’s just no way you’d be able to work it out.
I can’t recall the details but I think it’s covered in the Ancient Americas video on the khipu on youtube.
By “textual info” I mean plain language, like we’re using now. It’s theoretically possible to encode it in khipu, not just for Quechua but for any other language; but doing it in a practical way is another can of worms.
Instead what I think that they used is what the video calls a “semasiographic system” - there are standardised codes for almost everything worth registering (from a bureaucratic PoV), and the officer/kamayuq is expected to be able to decode it.
For a silly example using English, it would be a lot like writing “Jn Smth in ptt 20 mze 35” and then reading it as “John Smith stored 20kg of potatoes and 35kg of maize here”.