For nearly 500 years, Incan culture has been the subject of fascination and debate. After being conquered by the Spanish in 1532, Incan civilization was destroyed, along with much of the evidence of their advanced technology. A Spanish priest, visiting the Incas prior to conquest, wrote:
"To see them use another kind of calculator, with maize kernels, is a perfect joy. In order to carry out a very difficult computation for which an able computer would require pen and paper, these Indians make use of their kernels. They place one here, three somewhere else and eight, I know not where. They move one kernel here and there and the fact is that they are able to complete their computation without making the smallest mistake. As a matter of fact, they are better at practical arithmetic than we are with pen and ink. Whether this is not ingenious and whether these people are wild animals let those judge who will! What I consider as certain is that in what they undertake to do they are superior to us." [italics mine]
While their mathematical superiority is well-documented, I am more fascinated by recent developments surrounding their language. Read more to read the latest.
In high school and college classrooms throughout the world, students are taught that one of the defining characteristics of Incan civilization is their lack of a writing system. Their language, Quechua, is well-known and still spoken in Peru, Ecuador, Northern Chile, Argentina, and Southern Colombia. It is an Andean language, as these countries are predominantly along the Andes Mountains. Most evidence, though, reveals no connection between the spoken language and any sort of writing system.
This has puzzled researchers for a long time. How did a civilization become as advanced and as vast as the Incan civilization did without some sort of written language? Unique among world civilizations without writing, the Incas represent the largest and most advanced civilization lacking this basic communication tool. What process is used, then, for daily communication across the expanse of the empire?
Current belief centers around a complex sytems of messengers, passing information by word of mouth. A sort of civilization-wife telephone game. Eli Lehrer, in an article on the Cornell University Website writes:
Spanish chronicler Cieza de León, for example, describes a system by which Incas used messengers to transmit spoken messages throughout the empire. Due to terrain which prohibited the use of wheeled vehicles, messengers had to travel on foot. Conveying a message over the entire length of South America thus required hundreds of individuals. Cieza de León and other chroniclers say that imperial rulers insured accuracy of the messages by executing those who made errors in transmitting the messages. [William] Burns points out a huge flaw in this system: if so many individuals handled each message, how would an administrator know which messenger to execute for a mistake in a message’s transmission? Either the mortality rate amongst messengers was unimaginably high or leaders rarely found the guilty messenger.
Contrary to many years of anthropologic teachings, the Incas may have had a system of writing that, until now, has remained both completely hidden and completely conspicuous. An older theory, advanced by William Burns Glynn, posits that textiles were the medium upon which the Incas communicated. Through meticulous research, he has found similarities between different pieces of art, all depicting ornate clothing of one sort or another. After careful analysis, his conclusion is that the "alphabet" of the Incan writing system consisted of twelve letters and ten numbers. The symbols for these letters and numbers, found in the patterns on clothing, could be rearranged a number of different ways, producing different sound and meaning each time. The conundrum here is that it may be impossible to prove, or disprove, this theory. So few examples of Incan civilization remain after its destruction at the hands of its Spanish conquerers. Without more evidence, a theory like this is likely to be relegated to the fringes of Anthropology and Linguistics, where it has been for the past 20 years.
Another theory has emerged, though, to challenge both the ingrained belief that the Incas had no written language and the theory proposed by William Burns Glynn. The new theory, as described by the Independent, a U.K. based newspaper, suggests that khipu is the medium of choice for Incan writing. Long known to be a tool for mathematical calculation, khipu is now beginning to be understood in a completely different light.
Some suggest that the khipu (a word that you will find spelled differently in many different places) is inherently a tool for communication. The argument is that mathematical accounting is a critical component to language, especially written language. A messenger sent with a khipu braided a certain way carries with him a message regarding quantity, or perhaps quality (on, say, a one to ten scale). In a sense, this does consitute written language, but only limited, and certainly not capable of higher-level discourse. It is this higher-level written language that drives current research.
Khipus are, essentially, woven strings. At Cornell, over 200 individual khipus have been documented. The khipu has been understood as a numerical storage device for many years, and resources exist to help you learn the khipu system. As told by the Independent:
'Khipu can be immensely elaborate, composed of a main or primary cord to which are attached several pendant strings. Each pendant can have secondary or subsidiary strings which may in turn carry further subsidiary or tertiary strings, arranged like the branches of a tree. Khipu can be made of cotton or wool, cross-weaved or spun into strings. Different knots tied at various points along the strings give the khipu their distinctive appearance."
In an analysis of the make-up of khipu, Gary Urton, professor of anthropology at Harvard University, has discovered a potential 7-bit binary system represented by the knots and connections of the khipu. Combining the possibilities of color with the organization of the knots, the expressive vocabulary of khipu reaches 1536 distinct representations. This is double the amount of ancient Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics. Sumerian cuneiform had between 1000 and 1500 separate units of information. Clearly, a system using these khipus for information had plenty of room for expressive communication.
This potential discovery has two paradigm-shifting consequences. First, this would represent the invention of a binary system 500 years before the first computers. While seemingly inconsequential, this discovery would be the first of its type. Second, the Incan system would become the world's only three-dimensional writing system. Whereas all previous and current writing systems use two-dimensional graphics emblazoned on a three dimensional surface, khipu-form, with its reliance on the interconnections of different woven strings, would be purely three dimensional.
Some evidence exists for such a system. According to the Independent, "the Spanish recorded capturing one Inca native trying to conceal a khipu which, he said, recorded everything done in his homeland 'both the good and the evil'." Gary Urton believes that texts are available that will provide greater insight into the use of khipu. It is also possible to imagine that khipu were used for something more than just accounting. While not directly "evidence" for a system of writing, it seems unlikely that they would develop an intricate ledger system without considering other types of communication.
Without a khipu "Rosetta Stone", though, any theory about an Incan system of writing is bound to stay a theory. While there are promising leads, no text has yet been found that matches a known written language with the unknown Incan language. If one is ever discovered, and the Incas are shown to have had a written language, a lot of history books will have to be re-written.
