QU019

Tall View

Khipu Notes Exist - See Below

Original Author: Kylie Quave
Museum: Dallas Museum of Art
Museum Number: B371/1983.W.2180
Provenance: Inka, Late Horizon
Region: Unknown
Total Number of Cords: 211
Number of Ascher Cord Colors: 19
Benford Match: 0.965
Similar Khipu:  Previous  Next
Datafile: QU019

Use ⌘ + or ⌘ – to Zoom In or Out

Khipu Notes

Wise Khipu B371 / T41299.38
Fragmentary khipu with four main cords and top and subsidiary cords. Four main cords tied together. Could have been tied in a circle originally. Both ends are severed - cut? Third main cord hangs on another, tied at both ends, like a subsidiary.
Includes 1 scrap package, A, of 3 fragments
Throughout khipu, the cord colors are patterned and repeated or set up with groups of the same hue.
Originally sewn to a green poster board. Removed by Dawn Planas and Kylie Quave 3/30/06.
There are a few top cords, one looped around two pendants (Main B1) and four that are just "standing" upward rather than "hanging" in Main C1, and Main D 1, 2, and 3.

Primary Cord Notes


There are 4 S-plied main cords knotted together (seem a bit haphazard).
Main A- mot lt br/lt tn. Main A 46.25cm, with knot at 40.25
Main B - mot lt tn. Main B - 55, with knots at 2, 5.5, 28 cm
Main C - mot md br/lt tn. Main C - 35 with knots at .5, 16.
Main D -mot md br/lt tn, with less lt tn than MC. Main D 19.0cm with a knot at 13.
Total from beginning of MA to end of MD=75cm stretched out.
Measurements (going from without the knotted sections, so excluding the part of the main cord that is held up in a knot)
Knot values on Main A have a slight pattern: the last pendant in each group is the largest value, but not the total of the others. However, when the last pendant value is subtracted some sets of groups have similar sums (i.e. Groups 2 and 3 have 130-140 without the last P; Groups 5-10 have a sum of about 237-247 and 272 without last P). Sum of Main A knots is 2789, with some possible missing knots.
Main A plied end is on right and tied in single knot to plied end of Main B. In middle of Main B, it is wrapped around Main C and then pulled through the wraps to make a knot. Main B's right end is pulled once through left of Main D (where B, C, and D all converge). Main C wraps around once and through Main B and then its knotted end is tied in a single knot with Main D's knotted end. Main D's knotted end hangs on its left and then is severed at right.
Main cord C is like a subsidiary main cord, hung across Main B. Similar to the main cords hung onto another main cord in Harvard Peabody khipu 41-52-30 2938.
How would it have been held up and read?

Cord Notes


Total Pendant count = 170 (A has 79, B 30, C 43, and D 18)
Top cord in Group A goes around two pendants of two different colors and on either side of it in the group, the pendants are two different colors corresponding to those within the top cord loop.
Knot registers shift up one on Main B. Change again on Main C and Main D.
On Main B, the first group has a knot sum of 173, while the top cord that follows the group also has a knot value of 173. Total of Main B is 345 without repeat of the top cord value.
Then, in the rest of Main B, Groups 2-5 have a knot sum of 172, one unit away from the value of Group 1 and the top cord.
Main C has a few color changing subsidiaries. These are relatively unusual.
Sum of Main C knots is 1145, but without the top cord, is 949. Group 2 has a value of 63, while the first half of Group 1 before top cord has value of 630, 10x as much. Top cord value in Group 1 is 196, while 630 is value of the group before top cord and 106 is value after -- does the 196 include some of what's recorded in each half - like a Venn Diagram?
For Main D, Group 1 has 111 with missing knots and a top cord of 168. Group 2 has value of 146 and some missing, but with 159 top. Group 3 has 156 with missing knots and a top cord of 164. All of these may have added up to their top cords when knots were complete? Or just nearly added up. Plus the top cords values are very close, so recording something similar and related.
Total knot count of khipu is around 5000 for pendants.