The quipu (khipu) was an Andean recording device of coloured, knotted cords used most fully by the Inca in place of alphabetic writing. Numbers were encoded in a decimal positional system of knot type and position, while colour, cord ply and arrangement carried further categories of meaning. Specialist khipukamayuq kept census figures, tribute and mit'a labour owed, storehouse contents and, by some accounts, narrative and genealogy. Portable and durable, the quipu let a vast empire administer population and resources without paper.
It is a powerful non-written information technology that underpinned Inca taxation, logistics and the planning of labour and settlement. The quipu shows complex statecraft and accounting are not dependent on a script.
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