Quipu
The Inca knotted cords used to record numbers and perhaps stories.
Also: khipu
A quipu, or khipu, is a set of coloured knotted cords used by the Inca and earlier Andean peoples to record numbers, such as the census, taxes and stores, and possibly also narrative information. A main cord carries hanging cords with knots in different positions, which show units, tens and hundreds in a decimal system. Specialists, the quipucamayocs, kept and read them. About a thousand survive. Scholars are still trying to decode them, and some suggest that colour, material and the twist of the cord also carried meaning. In some Andean villages, knotted cords are still used to keep track of herds and communal work.
Region: Latin America and the Caribbean