2 – They Left Behind no Written Accounts
At least not in the commonly defined sense. When it came to communication, the Inca used a system of knotted strings called khipus. As well as relaying verbal messages, the ‘runners’ mentioned in #1 would also pass information via khipus. To date, no one has ever been able to decode these messages but in 2002, researchers at Harvard University began what is known as the ‘Khipu Database Project’.
The aim of the project is to centralize all the information known about khipus and place it in a database capable of analyzing khipu patterns. The hope is to ascertain the meaning of these messages in ‘Rosetta stone’ fashion. The trouble is, there are only 831 surviving khipu which may not be enough to derive the requisite information.
Khipu consist of a series of knotted strings of different lengths and colors, known as pendant cords. They are suspended from a main cord, also known as a primary cord. The Inca used the wool of the alpaca and llama to create their khipus. It could be that the number of knots, along with the type of knot and their position on the primary cord, was used for recordkeeping purposes. Khipu have been described as ‘abacuses’ mainly used for accounting although an increasing number of researchers now believe that some khipu were not numerical and were in fact a form of writing.
The Inca were exceptional collectors of information and Spanish conquistadores were in awe of the Inca state’s organizational skills. Khipucamayocs, specially trained khipu readers, were employed to keep track of the immense amount of food and textiles stockpiled in warehouses. According to one Spanish chronicler of the era, the khipu readers were so skilled that “not even a pair of sandals” would be missing from their tallies.