The Inca Empire managed vast territories without a written alphabet, relying instead on a mysterious system of knotted ...

For hundreds of years, Andean people recorded information by tying knots into long cords. Will we ever be able to read them?

Five centuries ago, the Incas ruled the western half of South America with the help of a unique form of writing based on ...

Looking at the Jucul khipu. Author provided (no reuse) Efforts are now underway to get accurate radiocarbon dates for the Jucul khipus, which will provide a chronology of these climate-based ...

The 97 khipus conserved by villagers include the largest khipu in the world, which is over 68 metres long. Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the ...

Inka khipu with human hair was carbon dated to the Inca Empire, around 1480AD. Isotopic sampling of the human hair on the Inca khipu shows that the diet of the person who made the khipu was that ...

The Atlantic has a fascinating deep dive into khipus — long cords that the Inca tied knots into to preserve information. Few know how to read the knots, which are hundreds of years old and fragile.

It has been thought that ornate threads of strings and baubles known as khipu are how records were made for business and administration, probably by a decimal code of knots in strings.

China’s Tianwen-2 mission to curious asteroid Kamo‘oalewa is underway. Also, how to read newsprint from 1.3km, and new climate insights from the mysterious Inca Khipu records. Show more China ...