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Keys to Mathematical Treasure Chests: Andean Khipus – Conclusion and References

Author(s): 
Manuel Medrano (Harvard University)

 

Conclusion

As we near the 100-year anniversary of Leland Locke’s The Ancient Quipu or Peruvian Knot Record [1923], this survey of khipu studies’ online footprint has endeavored to highlight the sheer variety of resources created since Locke’s decipherment of the numerical “khipu code.” Khipus of different times and places are maintained in the high-quality online records of dozens of museum institutions, with an ever-growing percentage encoded in an existing, open-source khipu database. Rich documentation and analyses await the online reader invested—like today’s handful of khipu researchers—in someday fully deciphering the primary sources of the ancient Andes.

References

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Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. 1981. Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Barraza Lescano, Sergio, Rodrigo Areche Espinola, and Giancarlo Marcone Flores. 2022. “By Stones and by Knots: The Counting and Recording of Chili Peppers Stored During the Inca Occupation of the Guarco Administrative Center of Huacones-Vilcahuasi, Lower Cañete Valley, Peru.” Andean Past 13: 221–64.

Brunori, Martina, and Stefania Passerini. 2019. “Sixteenth-century Peruvian Quipu.” In Reports from the Ethnological Materials Laboratory 4, edited by Stefania Pandozy, 68–75. Vatican City: Musei Vaticani.

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Collections

American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA.

Dallas Museum of Art, TX, USA.

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collections, Washington, DC, USA.

Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru.

Museo Larco, Lima, Peru.

Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Lima.

Museo de Sitio de Pachacamac, Peru.

Penn Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Berkeley, CA, USA.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, USA.

Världskulturmuseet, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Manuel Medrano (Harvard University), "Keys to Mathematical Treasure Chests: Andean Khipus – Conclusion and References," Convergence (August 2022)