EN A Methodological Approach to the Reading of the Inca Quipus from the Colonial Quipus

Abstract

In recent years, interest in quipus has grown significantly. With the development of studies on colonial quipus, the question arose whether they can help to understand the structure of pre-Hispanic records and, therefore, facilitate the reading of Inca quipus. In this paper, analyz-ing the Spanish vocabulary found in the Andean knotted registers, I propose that the signs present in early colonial quipus-with the emphasis on the word early-may be analogous to the signs that appeared in the imperial quipus of the Tahuantinsuyu.