WOW! They make it sound like they are going to crack it. But with my luck, all the remaining Khipas, instead of being Homeric tales of valor, triumph, deceit, and treachery, will be manifests, orders, and invoices.
Sabine and others are aware of khipus that weren’t destroyed but have been in the possession of communities all along.
“A Khipu Typology
We know (or can infer) that some khipus are census accounts, some have to do with calendars, some to record labor tribute taxes, etc. What does the current research indicate?
Based on her readings from Spanish chronicles,
Magdalena Setlak, lists these khipu categories:
- Historical khipus, which contained Inca myths and history, the genealogy of their rulers and the songs that commemorated them.
- Religious khipus, in whose strings huacas [sacred sites], sacrifices and offerings were recorded.
- Calendrical and ceque khipus, recording religious cycles and the social organization of Cuzco, as well as agricultural cycles.
- Judicial khipus, among which we have identified three types of records: codes, files, and testaments.
- Local khipu-registers, containing detailed records of all the inhabitants of each community and district.
- Khipu-censuses, central records maintained by state authorities.
- Khipu-corvee, in which all the services provided as mita or corvee were recorded.
- Tax-khipus, used to record tax obligations and compliance, and which in many cases were combined with khipu-corvee.
- Khipu-accounts, containing all accounting records except those that recorded tribute and mita, such as, for example, the stocks held in storehouses and way stations, and what had been distributed.
- Khipu-maps, composed of place names or the names of ethnic groups, and reflecting, in some cases, Inca conquests during their military campaigns.
- Khipu-letters, the content of which we do not know, although certain references in the chronicles point to their existence.
Data-science investigation of khipus reveals that, there are indeed, roughly about ten “types” of khipu. The challenge is we can only guess what the types are, and therefore, the types may not match the above list!
Nonetheless, with this typology in mind, can we find khipus in the Khipu Field Guide that are examples of these types? The answer is a qualified
YES. Calendrical khipus, census khipus, and khipu registers exist that have been positively identified as such. However, historical, religious, judicial, etc., khipus - anything that implies textual accounts, have not been identified either in the textual transcripts of khipus, or in khipus themselves.”
