The Ancient Quipu, Plate XXI

What it is

This is Plate XXI from The Ancient Quipu, A Peruvian Knot Record, a book by Leslie Leland Locke published in 1912. The plate is a black-and-white photograph of white cords on a dark background. Letters from a to n mark different knotted cords. On the right, a column of short horizontal cords with knots is numbered 9 down to 1. The plate is dated 4 January 1912 in the record.

Why it matters

Quipus were the Inca system for recording information with knots on cords. Locke's labeled plates were an early attempt to study how the cords were arranged and read. Quipus were part of the administration of the empire Atahualpa ruled, so this plate gives context on that system. It is a scholar's labeled study from 1912, not an Inca original from Atahualpa's time.

Look closer

• Why might the scholar have labeled the cords with letters and numbers?
• What do the numbered short cords on the right suggest about how information was organized?
• What would a reader need to know to interpret this plate, and what does it leave out?