How multilevel structures were plied and knotted on Indigenous string records, or Khipu of Peru.

Speaker(s):

Maria Koulouri, University of St Andrews

Abstract:

My PhD thesis explores the decipherment of a nineteenth-century hybrid text combining Spanish and Indigenous script from the Peruvian Andes, called the Khipu Board (Tabla Khipu). Previously, the Inka empire used the Khipu as recording devices for tax collection. Since the 1980s Multilevel Modelling has been widespread in various disciplines from education to archaeology. However, the wider public cannot easily perceive how multilevel structures were embedded in Indigenous Khipu records - used for 3,000 years - signed by colour, position and cord engineering itself.