SOULDRIVER RESEARCH · MDP PAPERS III & IV · DOI 10.17613/C97D4-PGS78 · 10.17613/2D7R8-26M93

The Khipu Loom

You can't write a love letter on a khipu. You can write an annual report a Cusco warehouse would have accepted.

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT?

HOW TO READ A KHIPU

SINGLE overhand knots in upper bands = tens / hundreds / thousands. Count them: 3 knots in the hundreds band = 300.

LONG knot at the bottom = units digit 2–9. Count the TURNS (wraps through the loop).

FIGURE-EIGHT knot = exactly 1 in the units band.

Read top→bottom on each cord, then cords left→right. Gaps and colour blocks are paragraph breaks. A sum cord audits its cluster.

READING DRILL — DECODE THE KNOTS

◈ INCA ACCOUNTING BUREAU · CORD READER ◈
— select a khipu from the gallery —