Posted on 08/25/2010 5:25:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Archaeologists say the Incas, brought down by the Spanish conquest, used khipus -- strands of cords made from the hair of animals such as llamas or alpacas -- as an alternative to writing... San Cristóbal de Rapaz, a village 13,000 feet above sea level... isolation has allowed it to guard an enduring archaeological mystery: a collection of khipus, the cryptic woven knots that may explain how the Incas -- in contrast to contemporaries in the Ottoman Empire and China's Ming dynasty -- ruled a vast, administratively complex empire without a written language. Archaeologists say the Incas, brought down by the Spanish conquest, used khipus -- strands of cords made from the hair of animals such as llamas or alpacas -- as an alternative to writing. The practice may have allowed them to share information from what is now southern Colombia to northern Chile. Few of the world's so-called lost writings have proved as daunting to decipher as khipus, scholars say, with chroniclers from the outset of colonial rule bewildered by their inability to crack the code. Researchers at Harvard have been using databases and mathematical models in recent efforts to understand the khipu (KEE-poo), which means "knot" in Quechua, the Inca language still spoken by millions in the Andes. Only about 600 khipus are thought to survive. Collectors spirited many away from Peru decades ago, including about 300 held at Berlin's Ethnological Museum. Most were thought to have been destroyed after Spanish officials decreed them to be idolatrous in 1583... The village houses one of the last known khipu collections still in ritual use.
(Excerpt) Read more at seattletimes.nwsource.com ...
i would also like to be on the red dwarf ping list please...
You’re on
I think most young men and teen boys kinda did that when “10” came out. ;’)
Interesting account!
Be glad Michael Douglas wasn’t there complaining that the Doobie Bros broke up. ;’)
Bert, in the South you can still find folk who call themselves the Us’ens.
As in: Us’ens live up the holler thar. Y’all ain’t welcome without you get invited fust.
Speaking of the Doobie Brothers, China Grove, that sleepy little town south of San Antone really has had some strange characters.
Just outside of town, sat one of the last famous brothels of the modern era in S.Texas, the Pony Farm. At night, a deputy’s car guarded the lane back from the county rd. to the house. (See lyrics about the Sheriff and his men)
On another fancy farm nearby one of the largest meth labs in S. Texas operated for years.
When the sun comes up on a sleepy little town
down around San Antone
and the folks are risin’ for another day
‘round about their homes.
The people of the town are strange
and they’re proud of where they came.
Well, you’re talkin’ ‘bout China Grove, wo, oh, oh,
oh, China Grove.
Talkin’ bout China Grove
They just keep on lookin’ to the East.
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