Artifacts in Action Virtual Lecture

More than a thousand years ago, people living in the Andes along the western edge of South America used complex arrangements of knotted cords to preserve information through color, fiber, structure, and the placement of knots. Commonly associated with the Inca, these cords, called khipus, have a much deeper history.

Join archaeologist and researcher Dr. Jeffrey Splitstoser for a fascinating exploration of Wari khipus, some of the earliest-known examples of this sophisticated technology. Look closely at how these deceptively simple cords were constructed and discover how researchers are working to decode the data contained within them. Were khipus simply tools for keeping numerical records, or could they have conveyed much more? What does their construction tell us about the people who made them? And what might these knotted cords reveal about how Andean societies organized information long before modern systems of writing?

Dr. Splitstoser will share what we know—and what we are still trying to understand—about how these remarkable objects were created, used, and interpreted.