The Ancient Quipu, Plate XXII

What it is

This is Plate XXII 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 a quipu, an Andean knotted-cord record. Many long, twisted cords with knots hang from a single top cord that curves across the top, and two loose ends extend outward. The plate is dated 4 January 1912 in the record.

Why it matters

Quipus were the Inca system for recording numbers and possibly other information with knots on cords. Locke's book was an early effort to study them in English-language scholarship. Quipus were part of the administration of the Inca Empire that Atahualpa ruled, so this plate gives context on how that empire kept records. Students should keep in mind that it is a 20th-century scholarly work, not an Inca object made in Atahualpa's time.

Look closer

• How are the knots and cords arranged, and what might that arrangement have recorded?
• Why would a scholar in 1912 photograph and publish this object, and who was able to read quipus then?
• What might a photograph of a quipu not show about how it was made or used?