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 remember this from National Geographic back in the days when they covered sciences and archeology.
|
|
|||
Gods |
To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. |
||
|
· Discover · Bronze Age Forum · Science Daily · Science News · Eurekalert · PhysOrg · · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google · · Archaeology · The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists · · History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword · · Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword · · |
|||
Yes, in the olden days...such a publication called National Geographic actually covered archeology and geography. At some point, these were deemed too difficult by the new ownership who appeared in the 1990s to understand. As the old masters of the NG empire understood...publication over archeology was an art that was appreciated.
But then one day, these people simply disappeared. No one can explain what happened to them. They may have simply wandered away. Generations later, people try to run NG but they cannot read or interpret the old text. So we are left to wonder what it all meant in the old days.
36 years ago in Cuzco Peru... we went to a small church and found ourselves in the middle of an Inca festival which consisted of a bunch of very drunk Indians running around wearing masks, very old masks, of what appeared to be conquistadors. And they were shooting off guns as well as fireworks. Very scary. Then, same week we were trying to find someone who knew someone who knew someone and found ourselves in a suburb (not like here - more barrio) and ended up in a little museum full of mummies.... row after row of mummies in fetal position. Very creepy. Then we went to Macha Pichu where my husband developed strep throat. Came back, got him a shot and a flight out of town and in the air port a crazy french guy runs up and starts yelling at us that Nixon resigned. Very odd week at 10,000 feet.
CASSANDRA Hello Arnold, bang on time.
RIMMER I’ve brought you a visitor, Cassandra. Do you know his name?
CASSANDRA Yes, I do. Not –
[Shock registers on RIMMER’s face]
RIMMER What?
CASSANDRA Not –
RIMMER ‘Knot’??
CASSANDRA Let me finish! Not that it matters what his name is, I mean, our relationship doesn’t last very long.
[RIMMER calms himself, visibly trying to relax]
KNOT I understand you have the ability to predict –
CASSANDRA - the future, yes, I do.
KNOT A hundred percent reli –
CASSANDRA - able, yes.
KNOT What happens to me; do I get back to Earth?
CASSANDRA No, you die in about four seconds’ time of a heart attack after hearing the news that you’re going to die of a heart attack.
KNOT You filthy ly — Ack!
[KNOT clutches a hand to his chest and stares at RIMMER and shock. RIMMER watches nonchalantly as KNOT sinks to the floor and sprawls on his back. CASSANDRA peers down at him sympathetically]
CASSANDRA Poor Rimmer.
RIMMER Yes, poor old ‘Rimmer’.
[KNOT raises a hand weakly]
KNOT My name is not –
[Quick to obfuscate the man’s inconvenient last words, RIMMER leans down as if to listen intently]
RIMMER Your name is not *what*?
KNOT Knot! Not... Knot..! [The man’s lead lolls back slackly. RIMMER looks to CASSANDRA impatiently]
RIMMER Is he dead now?
CASSANDRA I’m afraid so.
RIMMER Yes! [Enormously pleased, RIMMER holds up both fists triumphantly]
CASSANDRA He died of a massive coronary, just as I prophesied.
RIMMER Yes! [RIMMER punches the air again]
CASSANDRA You seem inordinately happy, Arnold, but why? You’re going to die too. [Once again RIMMER’s smile is mercilessly killed]
RIMMER But you said - I just... I’m gonna die too?
CASSANDRA I already told you: Rimmer dies of a heart attack, and then you and all the other Canaries die too; all except Lister, Kryten, Kochanski and the Cat. I’ve seen it.
You mean back before they supported Democrat Party politics?
TOO funny. Love that show!
Zatso? Would you like to be on the seldom used Red Dwarf ping list?
SURE !!!
I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH. I AM A FISH.
I had a similar weird experience in a small Inca village.
The people there had formed a sort of ‘cargo cult’ which worshipped Bo Derek.
Somehow the village had acquired her film “10”. They showed every Sunday in the local plaza while older natives tried to decipher her khipu dreadlocks.
Rioting occured when the film finally broke and the local Shining Path battalion was called in to regain control.
Strange sights do indeed occur when you stay at over 10,000 feet for any length of time.
...did a funny little dance, and fainted.
RIMMER: That’s a total lie!
LISTER: No, it’s not! Petersen told me.
“Came back, got him a shot and a flight out of town and in the air port a crazy french guy runs up and starts yelling at us that Nixon resigned. Very odd week at 10,000 feet.”
I had a run-in with a bunch of crazy Frenchmen at 11,000 feet in Nepal. They were yelling at us too.
“Strange sights do indeed occur when you stay at over 10,000 feet for any length of time.”
I resemble that!
I lived in Montezuma, Summit County, CO for a few months in ‘99. It’s at 10,400’, and strange sights do appear. Everybody is nuts there, but in a good way.
Be back tommorrow to read. Thanks.
You are totally making that up. LOL
Those folks were the We’ans. The were spread over most of North America. They abbreviated We’ans as Us.
The symbol is found in ruins all over ....U.S.
A “khipu” is the basis for a treasure map in the Clive Cussler novel “Inca Gold”. The “khipuy” (or “quipu”, as the novel refers to it) is used to delineate direction and distance to the treasure that is the basis of the story.
:’) It’s been said that the knotting system was probably a mnemonic of some kind, or perhaps abacus-like for storing numbers. One supposed eyewitness of one being used had the user following the strings one by one, not even looking at them, and reciting stuff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.