Pulling the Strings from Above: The Binding Threads of Andean khipus

András Stribik
BCDSS Independent Collaborator / MA Student at University Bonn

Fig. 1: Cotton khipu from Huacho, Peru. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Inv. Nr. V A 63040 (photo: C. Obrocki, n. d.).

The Inka Empire, known for its rocky sites such as Machu Picchu in Peru, also left behind a different legacy in the form of a vast collection of curious objects called khipus – knotted cords used to record data. These devices enabled effective administration without a written language, which interwove commoner and elite alike into the tight fabric of this remote state. Following the Spanish conquest in 1532, khipus were initially used under colonial rule but gradually became marginalized, their decoding methods lost to history.

The realm of the Inka was the largest native empire to have ever existed in America before the arrival of the European conquerors. Entitled tawantinsuyu by its Quechua-speaking rulers, which can be translated as the Realm of Four Parts, its vast territory expanded out from central Peru in the 15^th and 16^th centuries CE. It reached deep into the dry desert dunes of Chile and Argentina, the western groves of the Amazon rainforest, and even into the mountainous southernmost tip of Columbia.

One may wonder how such a large domain with its diverse groups and cultures was connected and organized. These regions were in fact tied together by an extensive royal road system with a total length of 40,000 km – that is as long as the circumference of the Earth! However, on their own these lengthy ties would have quickly loosened. If there was no means to send commands regarding tribute payments or collection from the palaces of the elite at one end of the empire to local communities at the other, many of the roads would have remained unused. In order to organize all of the imperial officials and to tie the commoners into the massive complex of the state, in addition to building roads, a system of administration had to be developed. Books had to be kept regarding tribute payments, while censuses had to be conducted about the size of the population. This is why ancient Andean weavers had to invent the khipu.

The khipu

As the people of the Andes – and more broadly South America – never invented a way to write in the European sense, they could not simply just note information down on a piece of paper and send it on its way. For the purpose of recording administrative details, Andeans developed a very different system of notation that – although might seem alien or illegible to us – was completely suited for the purposes of this unique kind of imperial administration. This medium was based not on carving in wood or stone or even on painting on papyrus or similar plain materials. Instead, textiles were employed for this purpose, which were spun, dyed, and knotted in intricate ways to convey information in a complex, three-dimensional manner.

Devices called the khipu (also commonly spelled quipu) were employed by the Inka to record all the information that was flowing within this well-populated empire, home to around ten million people. We could think of this object as a sort of knot-based abacus – though admittedly, khipus only served to record the results of calculations that were conducted separately.

According to Spanish chroniclers who came to South America during and after the infamous conquest of the Inka Empire, khipus were not only used for administering tributes and labor, but possibly even for recording more historical or lexical information like dynastic histories and poems or agricultural calendars.

Fig. 2: Khipus come in all shapes and sizes! As well as in so many colors that even the spectrum of a rainbow would pale in comparison to the wide palette of shades used to dye khipus with. They were usually spun from cotton; however, llama and even firm alpaca wool were also applied for their construction. Cotton and camelidfibre khipu from Pachacámac, Peru. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Inv. Nr. V A 42593 (photo: C. Obrocki, n. d.).

Who Made the khipu?

Khipus were spun by a class of administrators called the khipukamayuq (Quechua for khipu-makers or experts). By fastening various types of knots on strings with carefully selected colors, the khipukamayuqs were able to record all the data that was needed to run the empire. In fact, khipu translates simply to “knot” from Quechua. By tying these knots, khipukamayuqs also bound together the people of the empire within the fabric of obligations and responsibilities. So much depended on the background work of these weaving scribes that some researchers in the 21st century deemed them exercisers of “the greatest force in establishing and maintaining Inka power throughout Tawantinsuyu” (Urton and Chu 2015, p. 517).

Multiple descriptions as well as depictions of Andean cord-keepers exist from the period of European conquest in various chronicles, pictured in either colonial or historical settings. One example is the famous work of a native writer called Guaman Poma de Ayala from the early 17th century, written about seventy years after the conquest. This work is possibly the most important source of information about the Inka Empire and Andean natives before the Spanish, as it contains countless faithful illustrations and accompanying textual information. On one of the images, we can see a khipukamayuq spreading his khipu.

Fig. 3: A khipukamayuq spreading his khipu. Pictured in the bottom-left corner is a calculating device, called yupana. This is what the Inkas used to make the calculations that they knotted into their khipus. Royal Danish Library, GKS 2232 kvart: Guaman Poma, Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (c. 1615), page [360 [362]].

Where Were the khipu Used?

Along their serpentine roads, another feature that the Inka dotted their mountainous landscape with was hundreds and hundreds of storehouses. Many of the surplus products that were acquired in the diverse regions of the empire ended up in these buildings, often thousands of miles away from the natural landscape where they were produced. Heaps of local and exotic foods, clothing and textiles, and even weapons were stored in these constructions. These reserves were used to supply the backbone personnel of the empire: the massive military, imperial administrators, and religious specialists as well as laborers working the fields. In years of bad harvests, commoners were also entitled to the various forms of merchandise stored in these buildings.

Khipu-keepers played a key role in running these facilities, as all these products had to be accounted for on the knotted strings. Hundreds (if not thousands) of khipu records were kept at these buildings to record of the amount and variety of goods that were being brought in and out of the storehouses. Alongside archaeological evidence of these activities, Guaman Poma once again illustrated for us this important aspect of khipu-keeping.

Fig. 4: A khipukamayuq showing his work to an Inka emperor, called Tupaq Inka Yupanki. Royal Danish Library, GKS 2232 kvart: Guaman Poma, Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (c. 1615), page [335 [337]].

The khipu Enigma

How exactly the khipukamayuqs recorded all the information, like the tributes of tens of thousands of commoners or the family histories of elite groups, remains unknown to the present day. Unfortunately, not a single description regarding the way khipus were supposed to be read was ever written in a European text, or at the very least has not managed to survive for us to study. Thus, the way in which the knots, colors, and even the type of material or the direction of threads worked together to encode labels, names, places, and events is the great, centuries-old mystery of the Inka that no curious mind or enthusiastic researcher has managed to resolve so far. Even after over a hundred years of studying these objects, the only thing we can confidently read on them is the numbers, represented by knots. Every other quality of the khipu remains a perplexing puzzle. If we managed to crack the code, we would possibly be presented with a fragmented historical archive written by the Inkas themselves.

Fig. 5: Khipu. Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Inv. Nr. V A 42544 (photo: C. Obrocki, n. d.).

The Fate of the khipu

Originally khipus were a handy tool within the grasps of indigenous Andean lords. They used the colorful cords to tighten the diverse population to themselves, obliging them to communal labor and payment of tribute. This facilitated the luxurious lifestyle of chiefs and led to the construction of the many wonders of the Andes that dot the mountain range even today.

Soon after the Europeans anchored their ships along the shores of Peru, the native lords’ grip upon the ends of the khipus lessened, as the Spanish seized these cords, taking control of the power that was encoded within them. Alas the strings were no longer being pulled by the emperors adorned in feathers and gold, but rather by the lords serving crowns and churches. However, as with many other native customs, eventually the khipus too became obsolete behind the convenient shadow of Latin script.

Although initially the Spaniards accepted the use of khipus during their conquest, this ultimately changed. The invaders soon began to attack it as one of the symbols of paganism and native resistance. Consequently, by the end of the colonial period the khipu gradually disappeared from public awareness and use, as through centuries of colonial and then republican rule it became more and more marginalized. Though khipus were still being spun and used in a diminished, local capacity during the later times of the colonial epoch, eventually the knowledge behind their code was lost even among the natives. Today only a few villages exist where khipus are still preserved, and even fewer where they are still being spun.