UR1114/KH0128 - Catalog Information

Section Information
Statistics:
Original Name:   AS114
Original Author:  Marcia & Robert Ascher
Museum:  Museum für Völkerkunde,
Museum Number:  VA16148
Provenance:  Between Ica and Pisco
Region:  Unknown 		# of Cords:   357 (339p, 18s)
# of Unique Cord Colors:  14
Benford Match:  0.4027
# Ascher Sums (pps, ips, cps, sps,...):  64 (28, 0, 25, 11,...)
Similar Khipu:  Previous (UR1100)  Next (UR280)
   UR1114/KH0128
Pendant Pendant Sum
Colored Pendant Sum
Subsidiary Pendant Sum
DataFile:
UR1114
Notes:
Ascher Databook Notes:
  1. This is one of several khipus acquired by the Museum in 1904 with provenance between Ica and Pisco. For a discussion of them, see UR1098.
  2. By spacing, there are 4 groups of pendants. The first 2 groups have 10 and 9 pendants respectively. The next 2 groups have 160 pendants each. By color, each of the latter groups are separated into 16 sets of 10 pendants each.
  3. All pendants in groups 1 and 2 are zero-valued (or blank). A prepared pendant blank, the color of the pendants in group 2, was stored with the khipu. If this was intended for group 2, the khipu would be 340 pendants separated into 16, 16, and 2 sets of 10 pendants each.
  4. The 2 groups of 160 pendants have the same color pattern with 1 exception. The pattern is 10 pendants of each color in the following order: B, W, HB, B, YB: B, B, G0, B, YB, B, W, CB, B, CB: B, GY:W, HB: CB. The exception is that in the first group, the 5th and 6th colors are interchanged.
  5. The 2 groups of 160 pendants have many of the same values in corresponding positions. In each of them, the 10 values in each of the 2nd, 6th, and 16th sets are zero; the first 5 values in each of the 4th, 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th, and 12th sets are zero; and pendants

    P11, P46, P56, P76, P87, P91, P98-P9,10, P10,6, P10,8 - P10,10, P13,1 - P13,3, and P13,7 - P13,9

    are all 0. The same non-zero values occur in both groups in the following positions:

    P12-P16, P31, P34, P71, P12,6, P12,8, and P14,2

    Thus, 90 of 160 positions have the same pendant values.

  6. The 2 groups of 160 pendants also have similarly placed subsidiaries. The first group has 10 subsidiaries and the second has 8. Seven of each are in corresponding positions in both groups and, with 1 exception, are the same color.
  7. In both of the 160 pendant groups, the long knots on the f1rst 10 pendant cords are positioned differently than on the other cords in the group. The clusters are higher on the cords so that they are where the others would have single knot clusters. (Note from #5 above, that 6 of these 10 values are the same in both groups.)
Bibliography:

Bibliography for UR1114/KH0128:

Year Author Title Pages
2009 Artzi, Bat-Ami. The secret of the knot: khipu No. 936 from the Maiman collection. Masters thesis, Hebrew University. 50; 52
1975 Ascher, Marcia and Robert Ascher. Quipu as a visible language. Visible Language 9(4):329-356. 344-345
1978 Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Code of the Quipu: Databook. University Microfilms, Ann Arbor. 687-689; 764-781
1981 Ascher, Marcia, and Robert Ascher. Code of the Quipu: A Study in Media, Mathematics, and Culture. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor. 86
1970 Mackey, Carol. Knot Records in Ancient and Modern Peru. PhD dissertation, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. 28
2024 Medrano, Manuel and Ashok Khosla. How Can Data Science Contribute to Understanding the Khipu Code? Latin American Antiquity. Published online 2024:1-20. doi:10.1017/laq.2024.5 13
2020 Pancorvo Salicetti, Anel, (editor). Quipus y quipucamayoc: Codificación y administración en el antiguo Perú. Apus Graph Ediciones, Lima. Salicetti, Anel, (editor). Quipus y quipucamayoc: Codificación y administración en el antiguo Perú. Apus Graph Ediciones, Lima. 428
1929 Schmidt, Max. Kunst und Kultur von Peru. Impropylaen-Verlagzu, Berlin 97-98
2024 Thompson, Karen M. A Numerical Connection Between Two Khipus. Ñawpa Pacha, pp.1-22. 20
1994 Urton, Gary. New Twist in an Old Yarn: Variation in Knot Directionality in the Inka Khipus. Baessler-Archiv Neue Folge 42:271-305. 298
2003 Urton, Gary. Signs of the Inka Khipu: Binary Coding in the Andean Knotted-String Records. University of Texas Press, Austin. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7560/785397 -
2004 Concordancias y afinidades en archivos de registros de Khipus procedentes de Chachapoyas e Ica, Perú = Matching accounts in the Khipu archives of Chachapoyas and Ica, Peru. In: Identidad y transformación en el Tawantinsuyu y en los Andes coloniales : perspectivas arqueológicas y etnohistóricas / Peter Kaulicke, Gary Urton y Ian Farrington, editores. Lima: Fondo Editorial de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Vol. 3, p. 289-303. (Boletín de arqueología PUCP ; no. 6-8) 293-294
2005 Urton, Gary. Khipu Archives: Duplicate Accounts and Identity Labels in the Inka Knotted String Records. Latin American Antiquity 16(2):147–167. 150-153; 154; 155
2017 Urton, Gary. Inka History in Knots: Reading Khipus as Primary Sources. University of Texas Press, Austin. 261