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Dating back at least to Middle Horizon times (600-1000 AD), Andean cultures have kept records using knotted cords of cotton or alpaca wool. These are called khipus in Quechua. Unfortunately, due to their organic origins and the humid andean climate, few of these khipus survive to be studied. |
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| "Now, after more than a decade of fieldwork and research, a professor at Harvard University believes he has uncovered a language of binary code recorded in knotted strings – a writing system unlike virtually any other." |
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| This goes to the root of what constitutes a language, and the differences between human language and computer languages. Until proven otherwise the prevailing thinking in the field is that khipus were ingenious and complex data storage systems, but that they did not constitute the written form of an authentic human language. An article in today’s Boston Globe claims Gary Urton’s theory "has Incan scholars abuzz." And I thought it was a mosquito….The article does admit |
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| "The only way to prove Urton’s theory correct would be to translate the khipus, which no one has yet done." read more…. |
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