Twisted textile cords may contain clues to Inca messages
An anthropologist is unraveling a writing system in villagers’ artifacts from the 1700s
MESSAGE CORD A bundle of animal hairs signals the beginning of a sequence of twisted and knotted cords on an 18th century khipu from a Central Andean village. A bright red tuft of deer hair is followed by a woven cone of hairs from different animals mixed with metallic fibers. New research suggests this and another khipu contain a type of writing.
William Hyland