AS047/KH0058

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Khipu Notes Exist - See Below

Original Name: AS047
Original Author: Marcia & Robert Ascher
Museum: Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia de Perú
Museum Number: MNAAHP1748
Provenance: Unknown
Region: Unknown
Total Number of Cords: 178
Number of Ascher Cord Colors: 16
Benford Match: 0.984
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Datafile: KH0058

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Khipu Notes

Ascher Databook Notes:
  1. By spacing there are 10 groups. Basically each has 8 pendant cords (group 5 has one additional pendant and group 9 has one less).
  2. The groups show similar color patterns: in all cases the first pendant is W; with two exceptions, the second is MB; positions 3 and 4 are inconsistent but are the only positions which contain the combined colors (YB: LA, YB: W, CB: W, LA: W); with one exception, pendants 5, 6, and 8 are YB or MB; and with two exceptions, the seventh pendant is 0G. (This assumes that the extra pendant in group 5 is between the fifth and sixth pendant positions and that in group 9, position 7 is non-existent.)
  3. Subsidiaries appear on all positions. There are 3 to 5 subsidiaries on the pendant in position l; at most one subsidiary in position 8; at most 2 in positions 2,3,4,6,7; and at most 3 in position 5.
  4. Assuming an error of ls knot on pendant 1 in group 5 (i. e., the value should be 109 rather than 9), in all groups the value of position 1 is greater than the values in the other positions. Pendant 1 ranges from 83 to 115, while the rest of the values are from O to 59. If subsidiary values are added to pendant values, this relationship remains as the range of position 1 is increased from 101-158 while the range of the others remain 0-59.
  5. There are some relationships based on the sums of adjacent pendants.
    1. The sums of pendants 1 and 2 are equal for groups 1 and 2. Also the sums of pendants 3 and 4 are equal for both groups.
    2. The sums of pendants 1 and 2 are equal for groups 4 and 7. Also, in group 4, the sum of pendants 1 and 2 equals the sum of pendants 3,4,5,6. This same value (119) is obtained by summing all pendants excluding 1 and 2 of group 5.
    3. In group 8, the sum of pendants 1 and 2 equals the sum of the rest of the pendants in the group.
    4. In group 10, pendant 1 equals the sum of the rest of the pendants in the group.
  6. KH0058 and KH0081 are associated. They were labeled by the Museum with the same identification number. They are also similar in color, groupings, and values.
    1. The colors W, MB, YB, CB, LA, 0G appear individually or in combination on both khipus. No other color appears on either. (It is interesting to note that our recording of KH0058 and KH0081 were separated by more than a week and by travels within Peru. Our reidentification of the same colors, for what turned out to be related khipus, serves to support our constancy in color-name selection.)
    2. KH0081 has 2 parts each containing sets of 1, 5, 10 groups of 7 pendants each, while KH0058 is j ust one set of 10 groups of 8 pendants each. However, there is some similarity of color pattern. In both, for all groups, position 1 is W, position 2 primarily MB, and the last position is primarily YB. In KH0058, and in the set of 10 groups in the first part of KH0081, the next to last pendant is primarily 0G.
    3. KH0058 is further related to the sets of 10 groups of KH0081 by order of magnitude of the pendant values. The center and extent of the range of values for each position in the 10 groups of KH0058 and 20 groups (2 sets of 10 groups each) of KH0080 are shown below. Note that in observation 2 above, positions 3 and 4 were identified as being similar to each other in that they both contain a variety of combined colors. If their values are added together, the range of sums corresponds to position 3 on KH0081. It too is a combined color. All the relationships together suggest that the 8 positions of KH0058 can be directly associated with the 7 positions of KH0081 as follows:

      1 to 1, 2 to 2, 3 & 4 to 3, 5 to 4, 6 to 5, 7 to 6, and 8 to 7.

      KH0058
      Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
      Value Range 95±20 21±14 27±14 16±08 34±35 25±14 27±19 14±14
      KH0081
      Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
      Value Range 86±40 21±14 43±32 32±22 31±22 36±21 11±11

      One adjacent sum relationship similar to those noted in observation 5 above is found in the last group of the first part of KH0081. In it the sum of pendants 1 and 2 equals the sum of the rest of the pendants in the group.

    4. KH0081 has two parts each of which has the following form:
      1. 1 group whose values, position by position, are the sums of the 5 groups in B, or whose values are the order of magnitude of the sums.
      2. 5 groups whose values, position by position, are the order of magnitude of the sums of the 10 groups in C.
      3. 10 groups.

      Thus, C, the set of 10 groups is, in some sense, the data base from which the rest of the values in B and A are constructed. KH0058 is another such data base.

  7. In keeping with the association of KH0058 and section C of KH0081, and in keeping with the association of position 5 in the groups of KH0081 and position 6 in the groups of KH0058, another sum relationship is seen: the position 5 sum of the 10 groups of section C of Part I of KH0081 equals the position 6 sum of the 10 groups of KH0058.