Researchers Think They've Got the Incas' Numbers - Los Angeles Times: "Two Harvard University researchers believe they have uncovered the meaning of a group of Incan khipus, cryptic assemblages of string and knots that were used by the South American civilization for record-keeping and perhaps even as a written language.
Researchers have long known that some knot patterns represented a specific number. Archeologist Gary Urton and mathematician Carrie Brezine report today in the journal Science that computer analysis of 21 khipus showed how individual strings were combined into multilayered collections that were used as a kind of ledger.
The ledger could then be used to transfer data and instructions between regional centers and the Incan capital, Cusco.
'What we see is information moving vertically,' Urton said."
Aucun commentaire:
Publier un commentaire