Quipu

A quipu is a recording device made from knotted cords, used in the Andes to encode numerical data and possibly other information.

Quipu knot system: A set of knot types and positions used to represent numbers on quipu cords. Knot form and placement provide the clearest evidence for how quipu encoded decimal quantities.
Caral–Supe civilization: An early civilization of Peru's Supe Valley, flourishing several millennia before the Inca Empire. A possible early cord record from Caral raises questions about how long quipu-like devices have existed.
Inca census: The counting of people across the Inca Empire for administrative purposes. Quipu could preserve population counts needed to organize imperial rule.
Inca writing systems: The debated question of whether the Inca used a writing system beyond quipu and other recording practices. Quipu's capacity for language-like information remains central to debates about Inca writing.
Khipu decipherment: The effort to identify the rules and meanings encoded in surviving quipu. Decipherment must explain both repeated numerical structures and differences among individual records.
Decimal system: A base-ten numeral system in which each place represents a power of ten. Quipu knots commonly represent values by decimal place, with position indicating magnitude.
Wari civilization: A powerful Andean state centered in Peru from roughly the seventh to tenth centuries CE. Wari cord artifacts show that organized Andean recordkeeping predates Inca rule.
Mit'a: A system of mandatory community labor used by the Inca state and later colonial authorities. Quipu helped track labor obligations and the people assigned to them.
Alphabetic writing: A writing system whose basic signs represent individual speech sounds. Unlike alphabetic scripts, quipu encode information through cords, knots, colors, and arrangement.
Túpac Yupanqui quipu: A colonial-era account describes an Inca ruler ordering a quipu record of historical deeds. The report is often discussed as evidence that quipu could preserve historical narratives.

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