The inscriptions of the Incas are hidden in knots

More than 500 years before the advent of computers, the Incas living in the Andes (Peru) invented a 7-bit binary code to store information, and represent them with knotted knobs. This discovery challenges the long-held concept that Inca is the only large bronze civilization that does not have written language.

Khipu of Incas ( Source: Sunysb )

Khipu, in Quechua language (the official language of the Inca empire) means 'button'. This ornament consists of a main string, thereby radiating many symmetrical strings (which can be attached to secondary or tertiary wires), with many knots or knots. In 1923, historical scientist Leland Locke proved that khipu was not only a normal ornament, but a fiber abacus, in which the tabs had the function of storing calculation results, just like the Wood grain on the abacus of the Chinese. However, Locke's rule solved only a small fraction of the 600 people found on this land.

Since no one can decode those buttons, many scholars argue that khipu is actually just a random creation of someone in the Inca community. Some people even consider them as "memorabilia", for the purpose of retelling old stories or reminding their owners to do something.

Recently, however, Gary Urton, a Harvard pre-Columbian professor at the United States, offers a revolutionary conjecture in ' Signs of the Inka Khipu '. He thinks these knotted models not only follow a uniform standard, but also represent a high-level writing system, equivalent to the writing developed by the Sumerians (in Mesopotamia), who Egypt, Mayan (Central America) and Chinese. Although none of these writing systems are as versatile as the alphabet (the system can represent infinitely many syllables), but at the beginning of human civilization, they were all steps forward. superior in human ability, to record the world around more effectively than the original way of painting.

Analysis of 32 khipu was found in 1997 (along with 225 mummies in a cave in northern Peru), Urton and colleagues discovered that any trained person could translate the code of khipu. Over three of them, they found that there were compatible sequences that could be used to transmit digital data.

Source: Pravda

' We had the first evidence of a control and comparison system. It is a clear sign that the Incas do not store information in the way that there is only one copy and only the founder can understand it , 'Urton said.

He also argued that the binary code could store at least 1,536 informational data (compared to the Sumerian primitive typeface with only 1,300-1,500 characters, or 600-800 Egyptian characters) and Maya). This number is the result of a combination of 7 choices (such as material, direction of rotation, knotting direction, color .) during the fabrication process. For example, each khipu can only be made from cotton or wool. The weaver will have to choose one of these two materials when creating his knotted string. They will also have to decide whether to counter-clockwise or anticlockwise, and choose one of the 24 colors that can be used to weave yarns . In total, those conversions give 1,536 ways to 'write' a character. khipu.

If Urton's findings were correct, the Incas had not only chosen binary code - the mathematical foundation for computer activity - at least five centuries before humans actually invented computers, but also leaving the world with a unique three-dimensional "scripting" language so far (the current languages ​​are all represented on a flat surface, such as paper, walls .).

Compared to ancient Greek or Roman civilizations, Inca is only the focus of a very small number of studies, so there are many mysteries surrounding this ethnic group that have not been discovered. Continuing to decipher the khipu can partly shed light on many questions about that civilization, as how they can build walls with perfect joints without using cohesive materials, or What did they use to build Machu Picchu "aerial city"?

BH