2/6/2020 Undergraduate Colloquium Writeup: Inka Khipus

Dawkin Erceg
ID# 5134372

On 2/6/2020, UMD Planetarium’s Jim Rock brought the traditional counting systems of

the Inka people to UMD. He brought several curious looking pieces of rope, which were actually

recreations of the Inka’s Khipu. He had us work together in groups to try to decipher what its

purpose was, and how it functioned. I found that this really helped engage the audience and

give some perspective as to how complicated archeology can be.

Upon observing the Khipus, it becomes immediately obvious that there are multiple

strings that hang independently from the main rope. When we inspected the individual strings,

they all had multiple groups of knots, and we determined that each group was a digit in the

number that the string was counting. I was surprised when Jim told us that the Inka also

counted in base 10; while 10 is a common number to use historically, other societies have used

other number bases. It connected me to the Inka in a way, because we did not share a

language, we shared numbers.

As we examined the knots more closely, I noticed that several of the strings had a

different type of knot at the end, which we determined to be where the ‘1’s’ column. We

realized that this was significant, and then Jim told us that this knot specifically represented

zero for that column. The fact that they had an intellectual grasp of the concept of zero

indicated that this race of people was fairly advanced in thought.

He also showed us pictures of more complex Khipus, and some of them had strings that

branched into multiple strings, so that groups that were being counted could be separated into
2/6/2020 Undergraduate Colloquium Writeup: Inka Khipus

multiple groups. He also talked about how the material, weave, and color of the strings all

contained more information about what was being counted for the Inka. I was impressed to see

that the largest number ever recorded on a single cord of a Khipu was 97,356!

He then showed us a picture of a board with multiple bowl-like sections, that was

symmetrical along the longer axis. It was used to be able to make complex calculations, such as

multiplication of relatively large number, without making mistakes. It was also used to keep

track of numbers when counting until it was made into a Khipu.

I really enjoyed that Jim not only engaged the class in problem solving to get them

invested in the idea of the Khipus, but I really liked that he brought the culture and history of

the Inka alive during his presentation. One quote in particular stuck out to me: “Math is highly

cultural. Most people don’t notice because they are born into the culture, but people from

different cultures feel the difference.”