1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,680 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff, 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:11,280 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbomb here with a classic episode from our archives. 3 00:00:12,119 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: In this one, we peer into the history of a 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:18,840 Speaker 1: recorded language that goes back to ancient times, but that 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 1: doesn't involve writing. Welcome to Kipu, the Incan system of 6 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: recording information with knots tied in string. Hey brain stuff, 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. During the Bronze Age, the Inca 8 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:36,640 Speaker 1: built the largest pre Columbian empire in the Americas, extending 9 00:00:36,720 --> 00:00:39,520 Speaker 1: along the west coast of South America from Bolivia to Chile. 10 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: They not only thrived in the harsh climate and dry, 11 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:45,279 Speaker 1: steep slopes of the High Andes, they also served up 12 00:00:45,280 --> 00:00:47,760 Speaker 1: a master class in technical road building that would have 13 00:00:47,760 --> 00:00:50,560 Speaker 1: made the Romans quaken their sandals think it created a 14 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: twenty five thousand mile highway system that's about forty thousand kilometers, 15 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:58,200 Speaker 1: complete with rope bridges across treacherous mountain chasms. They also 16 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: engineered millions of acres of high alayitude, terraced farmland, and 17 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: constructed an earthquake proof citadel on top of a craggy 18 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,240 Speaker 1: mountain peak one point five miles that's two point four 19 00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:09,960 Speaker 1: kilometers above sea level. They even figured out how to 20 00:01:09,959 --> 00:01:14,319 Speaker 1: freeze dry potatoes. But unlike the neighboring Maya and Aztecs 21 00:01:14,480 --> 00:01:17,920 Speaker 1: and the ancient Mesopotamians, Chinese, and Egyptians, the Inca never 22 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,600 Speaker 1: developed a system of writing. What they did have were cipu, 23 00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:24,560 Speaker 1: or knotted lengths of cord made from lama or alpaca 24 00:01:24,600 --> 00:01:27,880 Speaker 1: wool or cotton. They hung in rows like a curtain, 25 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:30,840 Speaker 1: from a thicker central rope, which was sometimes coiled up 26 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: to resemble a string mop. These bundles were often color coded, 27 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: although most surviving cepuo are now a uniform camel color 28 00:01:38,040 --> 00:01:41,600 Speaker 1: and could contain just a few strings or hundreds. When 29 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,440 Speaker 1: the Spanish arrived and wiped out the entire Inca civilization, 30 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,680 Speaker 1: they found cupou everywhere, but destroyed many of them. In 31 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, a science historian named Leland Locke, studying 32 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:54,480 Speaker 1: the keepu at the American Museum of Natural History in 33 00:01:54,480 --> 00:01:58,280 Speaker 1: New York City, discovered the knots in the keepu represented numbers, 34 00:01:58,600 --> 00:02:01,320 Speaker 1: and the bundles of textiles were most likely record keeping 35 00:02:01,360 --> 00:02:04,960 Speaker 1: devices similar to abacass, probably used to hold census data 36 00:02:05,240 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: or to keep track of the contents of storehouses, or 37 00:02:07,800 --> 00:02:10,960 Speaker 1: how many lamas were paid as tribute. He realized that 38 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:12,959 Speaker 1: the height of a knot and its position on its 39 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: cord sybolized units tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on, and 40 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,679 Speaker 1: the position of a string off the main rope could 41 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:23,520 Speaker 1: denote things like specific people or villages. But even after 42 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:25,880 Speaker 1: Locke cracked the code, he noticed that some of the 43 00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:29,320 Speaker 1: keepoo he studied seemed to be anomalies. He figured these 44 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:34,040 Speaker 1: were used for ceremonial purposes. There are, however, anecdotal clues 45 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,520 Speaker 1: that entire narratives could be passed along through keipu. A 46 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:41,480 Speaker 1: one seventeenth century Spanish conquistador reported meeting an Inca man 47 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:43,760 Speaker 1: on the road who carried cipo that he said told 48 00:02:43,800 --> 00:02:46,240 Speaker 1: of all the deeds of the Spanish and Peru, good 49 00:02:46,320 --> 00:02:50,080 Speaker 1: and bad. Cipo couriers reportedly ran all over the Incan 50 00:02:50,200 --> 00:02:54,560 Speaker 1: Empire the chords looped over their shoulders. But finding living 51 00:02:54,600 --> 00:02:57,600 Speaker 1: people now who can help researchers unravel the secret of 52 00:02:57,639 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: the knots has proved very difficult, if not impossible, so 53 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:04,760 Speaker 1: KEEPU research has made slow progress in the past century. 54 00:03:05,160 --> 00:03:08,520 Speaker 1: Since the early nineteen nineties, a Harvard anthropologist named Gary 55 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,440 Speaker 1: Urton has been working to decipher what, if anything, the 56 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,480 Speaker 1: keepoos that don't fit the normal mold of accounting devices 57 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:17,560 Speaker 1: might mean, collecting a database of over nine hundred keepu. 58 00:03:17,600 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: In the process, Rton has discovered that beyond the position 59 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:23,519 Speaker 1: and height of the knots, there are other factors to 60 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: take into consideration when reading a keipo, the color of 61 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:29,280 Speaker 1: the string, the direction the knots are twisted, and the 62 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 1: type of knots used. Through cross referencing keepoo in the 63 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: Harvard Collection with Spanish documents from the exact time and 64 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: location in Peru where they originated, he has recently been 65 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: able to prove that the direction the knots are tied 66 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,520 Speaker 1: in could denote which clans individuals belonged to. Another researcher 67 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:49,839 Speaker 1: named Sabine Highland at Saint Andrew's University in Scotland has 68 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,880 Speaker 1: recently found that some keepoos still exist within villages in 69 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:56,200 Speaker 1: the Andes. The locals there have shared some new information 70 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:59,440 Speaker 1: about them, for instance, that the different materials used in 71 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:02,640 Speaker 1: the strings is significant and their understanding is that the 72 00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:06,200 Speaker 1: devices were used to tell stories of warfare. Highland also 73 00:04:06,240 --> 00:04:10,880 Speaker 1: reports evidence of phonetic symbols in the strings. It could 74 00:04:10,920 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: be for all their ingenuity, the Inca has never learned 75 00:04:13,520 --> 00:04:16,240 Speaker 1: to use symbolic written language, But it looks like they 76 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:17,960 Speaker 1: may have been just a little more creative with their 77 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:29,080 Speaker 1: storytelling than any other major civilization to date. Today's episode 78 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,000 Speaker 1: is based on the article Unraveling Peopoo the Inca not 79 00:04:32,120 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: Language on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Jesslin Shields. Brain 80 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how Stuffwork 81 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more 82 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:45,240 Speaker 1: podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 83 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.