The NewScientist has an update on the work to interpret the Inca khipus, or chains of knots, which are known to have been used for accounting. Now it is looking likely that the khipus were a full writing system containing narratives, but that they must be read through sense of touch not just vision.
Under strict supervision, Hyland set about photographing the cords, reviewing the manuscripts and taking notes. Each khipu had hundreds of pendant cords, and they were more colourful and complex than anything she had ever seen. It was clear the various animal fibres used could only be identified by touch. The villagers told her the khipus were the "language of animals" and insisted that the different fibres have significance.
Her analysis eventually revealed that the pendants came in 95 different combinations of colour, fibre type and direction of ply. That is within the range of symbols typically found in syllabic writing systems, where a set of signs (say, the letters C-A-T) aligns with the sound of speech (the word "cat"). "I thought 'Woah, could this be a syllabic writing system?'," says Hyland. She has since hypothesised that the khipus contain a combination of phonetic symbols and ideographic ones, where a symbol represents a whole word.
Earlier this year, Hyland even managed to read a little of the khipus. When deciphering anything, one of the most important steps is to work out what information might be repeated in different places, she says. Because the Collata khipus were thought to be letters, they probably encoded senders and recipients. That is where Hyland started. She knew from the villagers that the primary cord of one of the khipus contained ribbons representing the insignia of one of two clan leaders.
Earlier in SN:
Harvard Student Helps Crack Mystery of Inca Code (2018)
Twisted Textile Cords May Contain Clues to Inca Messages (2017)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Muad'Dave on Friday November 30 2018, @12:25PM (3 children)
Clive Cussler wrote about 'quipus' being used to preserve the details of a voyage in his book Inca Gold [wikipedia.org] in 1994.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday November 30 2018, @12:50PM (1 child)
The new thing is that some progress has been made on decoding them.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday November 30 2018, @05:30PM
They should just watch the cartoon that was on TV 30 years ago, in which the little inca girl could just read the khipu.
Goes to prove you might save energy by talking to people to learn what they know while you are conquering them, rather than trash the place and ask questions half a millennia later.
By the way, I decoded the khipu from the article:
"No. No, I love you more. Yes I do. Now you hang up. You first. Oh, and bring me some llama milk. Love you."
You're welcome.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Saturday December 01 2018, @07:04AM
Similarly, when the Ebola epidemic made the news in 2014, I already knew most of the background facts from reading Tom Clancy novels [wikipedia.org].