Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Long before Spanish colonization, the indigenous people of Peru kept track of important dates and numbers, and perhaps even ...

LIMA, Peru — To the casual observer, they appear to be little more than multicolored tangles of arm-length strings. But a growing number of experts think that “quipus” might hold the secrets of the ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: The Inca quipu was a complex system of knotted cords, encoded numerical records and possibly even a full logosyllabic language. New research ...

Before smartphones, spreadsheets, or even written alphabets as we know them, the Inca appear to have managed information in a way that still feels surprisingly advanced. Their system, known as quipu, ...

SAN ANDRéS DE TUPICOCHA starts every year by swearing in new leaders, like many small towns in Peru. Instead of giving the office-holders a sash or medal it gives them a quipu, a coloured skein of ...