Catalog: KH0070 (AS059)

Section Information
Statistics:
Aliases:   AS059
Contributors:  Marcia & Robert Ascher
Museum:  O. Nunez del Prado, Cuzco, Peru
Museum Number:  5B
Provenance:  Unknown
Region:  Unknown 		# of Groups & Cords:   2 Groups, 8 Cords - 8p
# of Unique Cord Colors:  2
Benford Match:  0.7713
# Ascher Sums (pps, ips, cps, sps,...):  1 (0, 0, 0, 0,...)
Similar Khipu:  Previous (KH0235)  Next (KH0227)
   KH0070 (AS059)
Ascher Decreasing Group
DataFile:
KH0070
Notes:
Ascher Databook Notes:
  1. By spacing, this khipu bas 2 groups of 4 pendants each. The first group is subdivided by color into 2MB, 2W and the second group is all one color.
  2. All values on the khipu are between 7 and 13.
  3. This khipu, along with KH0071-KH0080, was found with a cloth bag at Chala. Dorothy Menzl, one of the excavators at Chala, deposited the bag and its contents with Oscar Nunez del Prado in Cuzco. Also in the collection were a set of 13 prepared blank pendants tied together, a set of 48 prepared blank pendants tied together with a fragment of a broken khipu, and several individual broken pendants tied together. This collection is also discussed in Knot Records in Ancient and Modern Peru, C. J. Mackey, University of California, Berkeley, Ph. D. thesis, 1970, Chapter 4, pp. 83-99. Details of portions of KH0072 and KH0080 are further described by the author on pp. 259-262.
  4. There is some similarity of colors used in this collection of khipus but no one color is very distinctive. For example, KB appears on KH0073-KH0079 and MB appears on KH0070 and KH0077-KH0079.
  5. Top cords appear on KH0079 and KH0080. In KH0079, both common f orms of top cords are used--those uniting pendant cords and those attached to the main cord. In KH0080, the only f orm used is attachment to the main cord. Both khipus have these top cords centered within groups of 8 pendants.
  6. KH0074, KH0076, KH0079, and KH0080 all have the twisted end of the main cord knotted.
  7. Several of the khipus in this collection have restricted values. KH0070 has values 7-13; KH0071 has values 1-8; KH0072 has values less than 7; KH0073 has values 6-15; and KH0076 has values 0-10.
  8. Most of the khipus in this collection have groups that are set off by spacing and color (KH0070-KH0072, KH0077-KH0080). However, three of the khipus also have groups subdivided in half by color. On KH0070, the first group of 4 pendants is 2MB, 2W and the second is all W; on KH0071 the second group of 4 pendants is 2YB:W, 2W and the third is all W; and on KH0079 some groups are 4 pendants of one color, followed by 4 of another color, while the rest are 8 of one color.
Bibliography:

Bibliography for KH0070 (AS059):

Year Author Title Pages
1978 Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Code of the Quipu: Databook. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor. 347-348
1981 Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 68
1970 Mackey, Carol. Knot Records in Ancient and Modern Peru. PhD dissertation, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. 83-99; 213; 224-227
2008 Urton, Gary. The Inca Khipu: Knotted-Cord record keeping in the Andes. In Handbook of South American Archaeology, edited by Helaine Silverman and William H. Isbell, pp. 831-843 . Springer Verlag, New York. 835
2017 Urton, Gary. Inka History in Knots: Reading Khipus as Primary Sources. University of Texas Press, Austin. 264