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posted by martyb on Friday January 19 2018, @07:55PM   Printer-friendly
from the knotty-problem dept.

He made graphs and compared the knots on the khipu to an old Spanish census document from the region when something clicked.

"Something looked out of the ordinary in that moment," Medrano said. "It seemed there was a coincidence that was too strong to be random."

He realized that, like a kind of textile abacus, the number of unique colors on the strings nearly matched with the number of first names on the Spanish census.

Source: Harvard student helps crack mystery of Inca code


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday January 21 2018, @06:55AM (1 child)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday January 21 2018, @06:55AM (#625544) Journal

    That may be true for some of those who died in the stadiums. It doesn't explain any of those who were tossed into the ring with lions, or wolves, such as the Christians, for example. People were dragged back from Africa, Asia, northern Europe, the British Isles, and fed to the entertainment machine. As for warriors, they may have observed any of dozens of religions, or no religion at all. Being fed to the entertainment machine was of no religious value to them. I'm afraid you're looking for a simple explanation for a complex situation.

    A bloodthirsty audience demanded entertainment and distraction, so people and animals alike were fed to them, lest they find time and motivation to revolt.

    Doesn't that sound a lot like America today, and "reality" television?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22 2018, @03:50AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22 2018, @03:50AM (#625939)

    Let's be clear about past civilizations. Life was brutal and short and the people of that age were born to it.
    My Grandfather was Ojibwa Indian, his mother ran from the tribe up in Michigan.
    The American Indian way of life was brutal and extreme to us modern types.
    Their favorite pastime was torture. Every tribe did it. It was considered a great honor to not scream out as you were tortured to death.
    An just about all tribes would eat the person that did not scream out, to absorb some of his strength. Some tribes only ate strips of human flesh but most were cannibals.
    They tortured and brutalized anyone they got a hold of. On raids they typically killed everyone except for young boys, who were indoctrinated into the tribe. They kept slaves and brutalized Them. Women were second class citizens and basically slaves to the men and performed most of the labor.
    It was their way. And the way of many human tribes and cultures. The Romans were civilized by comparison. But were still a brutal culture compared to what we have today.
    The American Indian never invented the wheel, they didn't have draft animals and for most of their entire culture never had horses. They would run entire herds of buffalo over a cliff and harvest the best parts.
    They were a brutal people as were so many other civilizations at the time. Life was short and hard and they survived by taking what they needed and never looking back. Just like every other group of humans.
    We are in a Much better place these days. And, more and more, we're thinking globally in regards to the environment and other cultures. We are growing and getting better all the time. As group the graph is spiraling upward.
    As I learned from my Grandfather: Do the best you can when you can. It is all that is asked of you. Hopefully you've left it a little better than when you showed up.
    We kinda seem to be headed that way.

    As an aside this also explains how you can have American Indians with blond hair and blue eyes. My Grandfather always insisted that they had to be captured Viking children. He grew up around a tribe of Indians and they had a few things to say about the past. One of them was that those Norseman were never able to grab a foothold. The Indians wouldn't allow it.

    Interesting if true. I believe it, though.

    Apologies for the Long post.