The BBC says (background info here) that
Researchers in the US believe they have come closer to solving a centuries-old mystery – by deciphering knotted string used by the ancient Incas. Experts say one bunch of knots appears to identify a city, marking the first intelligible word from the extinct South American civilisation. The coloured, knotted pieces of string, known as khipu, are believed to have been used for accounting information.
There are various accounts of the function of khipu in documents from the early empire in what is now Peru. Here’s a passage from an anonymous administrative document (Visita de los valles de Sonqo en los yunka de coca de la Paz, ca 1570):
Asked how much they normally paid Grauiel de Rojas annually he said that this deponent was a boy at the time and can remember nothing of the affair and that Mr Martin Pacha Coaquira was the holder of the quipo for all tributes
Martin Pacha Coaquira bears witness later as his village’s quipo camayo to fighting between indios and a local ynga (Inca, here used to mean a tame local ruler) as a result of gold accounting disputes. A quipocamayo’s functions are described in a Peruvian viceregal document from 1570 (Glosas para determinar las tasas):
Firstly, in meeting place of each tribe a hut should be constructed next to the house of the head chief and there should be placed a chest and in said hut and chest should be put the tribute and there should be quipucamayos to account for the tributary Indians and what they owe and they should see if someone omits to come to bring tribute on time…
In or before 1607 a judge conducted an inspection tour of Bolivian estate to check on working conditions (Escritura del juez visitador de las estancias para averiguar sobre cómo son tratados los que guardan…):
And then the abovementioned Pedro Chambi Quipocamayo took the oath. And having sworn to tell the truth, he said via the previously mentioned interpreter that in the year that he had been quipocamayo on the estate of the said Joan de Bolumbiscar, and that his salary is 45 pesos of which he is only owed 10 pesos, because on the first day of the new year he was paid 35, 20 in reals and 15 in dried potatoes, at 3 pesos a load, because this witness asked for it to be paid with this food. And he has been paid for the rest of the time. And that that he paid the Indians who working then in the place of those currently serving directly in reals 15 pesos for every six months, and that the witness observed this. And that said payment is in accordance with the quipo which he had of it.
I am glad we have more conjunctions nowadays.
All original texts are all in CORDE:
- Preguntado que tasa solian pagar en cada un año a Grauiel de Rojas dijo que este declarante a la sazon era muchacho y que no se acuerda nada de ello y que don Martin Pacha Coaquira era el que tenia el quipo de todas las tasas
- Primeramente en la cabecera de cada parcialidad se haga un bohío junto a la casa del cacique principal y allí se ponga una caja y en el dicho bohío y caja se eche el tributo y haya quipucamayos que tengan cuenta con los indios tributarios y con lo que les cupo y vean si falta alguno de venir a traer el tributo a su tiempo…
- E luego se rreçibió juramento en forma de derecho del dicho Pedro Chambi Quipocamayo. Y auiendo so cargo del prometido de dezir verdad dixo por el dicho yntérprete, que el a un año que sirue de Quipocamayo en la estancia del dicho Joan de Bolumbiscar, y le da de salario quarenta y cinco pesos de los quales solamente le deue diez pesos, por que el día de año nuebo le pago los treynta y cinco, los veynte en rreales y los quinze en chuño, a tres pesos la carga, porque este testigo se lo pidió en esta comida. Y de todo el demás tiempo está pagado. Y que a los yndios que se trocaron con los que oy sirven, les pagó en rreales en sus manos, a quinze pesos por cada seys meses, y lo vio este testigo. Y fue la dicha paga conforme al quipo que dello tenía.
Similar posts
- Lake Maracaibo: home of the first guiri, the original tanga?
Chávez’s anti-gringo rhetoric forms the basis of his appeal, but new evidence (which may gull the gullible and disturb yet the - So is this gypsy witch getting the shop girl to stick the egg in her chichi or what?
Conoci una gitana muy simpatica en mi tienda, a pesar de que nunca las he tragado, congeniamos. Le hice un descuento - Feijoo on artificial respiration
I don’t know when cardiopulmonary resuscitation was first performed, but here’s a 1753 citation by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (Cartas eruditas y - C19th noise pollution
Nightfall in Madrid, which was apparently notorious (Pérez Galdós, Rosalía, ca 1872): In the house a sepulchral silence reigned, but outside the - Refutation of Bilbeny’s “conclusive proof” that Quijote was written in Catalan
The problem with Catalan “philologist” and “historian” Jordi Bilbeny being a 24-carrot burro is that when he occasionally says something half
Comments