What exactly is a quipu, you ask?
Well, a quipu is a creation that was used in Peru and throughout the Andean region during the Incan rule. Quipus consist of a woolen base string from which multiple other strings are attached. The strings that hang off the base are usually different colors and are knotted in various places.
So what was this strange mess of cords doing in the Rare Book Collection at Wilson Library?
The answer to this question is: Because a quipu is a book.
Nope, I’m not stringing you along (hehe, I had to…)! A quipu is a string “book” of sorts.
Though the display in Wilson only said that quipus were used for record keeping, I have learned that there are a great deal of ways these string “books” could’ve been used.
For one, quipus may have been the accounting ledgers of the Incan Empire. Speculations that quipus were used to record everything from the census, to agriculture production and the contents of armories have the most support.
One related theory states that the knots corresponded to an early decimal system that Quipucamayocs (quipu-makers and readers) used to carry out accountant-like operations with.
Another way historians suspect quipus were used is in the recording of speeches and legends. Quechua, the language of the Incans (which is still spoken in Peru today), could’ve been represented with knots that represented the different sounds in a word or phrase.
As few as 600 quipus might be around today and many are housed in museums in Peru.
Last summer, on a trip to Peru, I saw a couple quipus on display in an archaeology museum in Lima. The amount of information these simple strings could hold amazed to me!
When I visited the “Into the Latin American Archive” event on Monday, I was so surprised to see that UNC owns a quipu. It’s just another exciting thing to be found in the UNC archives!
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