this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2025
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Illustrations of history

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This magazine is for sharing artwork of historical events, places, personages, etc. Scale models and the like also welcome!

Generally speaking, actual photos of a historical item should go to !historyartifacts@lemmy.world

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quipu (khipu) (media.piefed.ca)
submitted 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) by miss_demeanour@piefed.ca to c/historyillustrations@lemmy.world
 

The Inca civilization was characterized by modernities, including more than 30,000km of roads, advanced architecture, distance communication, and a accounting registration system in the so-called quipus.

The quipus were collections of strings with us, in which each collection was like a worksheet, and each string was a cell containing a number (integer or fraction) or operation. About 1500 kilograms survived the European invasion, and are carefully studied.

More: https://rethinkq.adp.com/artifact-khipu-inka-accounting-system/

lifted, with thanks, from:
https://arram.senta-la.cloud/@autobrain/115028263348238652

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[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago
[–] Coelacanth@feddit.nu 4 points 2 weeks ago

I'm pretty sure recent science is leaning towards the khipus not being just accounting devices but actually also potentially used as a logosyllabic (pseudo?) writing system. I haven't looked at khipu decipherment in a while though.

[–] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 weeks ago

So they had giant spreadsheets then?

That’s really cool if so