The Inca people spoke Quechuan, but they didnt have a script to write it down.
So there are no written materials in that language.
An example of a khipu from the Inca Empire.
The more elaborate versions contained up to 1,500 or more strings.
convey different values and meanings.
Heather Lechtman, an archaeologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Not everyone could read a khipu.
Only educated khipu readers calledkhipu kamayuqcould.
They were often employed by rulers, governors and village chiefs to keep bureaucratic records.
There are nokhipu kamayuqstoday, and the art of making and reading khipu is lost.
We can only guess what these knotted strings encoded.
Research seems to suggest that khipu were used for numerical records, or bookkeeping.
The Spanish had reasons to believe that.
The Spanish burned the khipu and punished the Indian.
Today, only a few hundred khipu are known to exist.
Some are in museum, while others are in the possession of the local communities.
They are regarded as a powerful symbol of heritage, and are handled only by dignitaries.
Even today, khipu are used in traditional ceremonies, even though they can be no longer read.
