The Unprecedented Discovery of the Puruchuco Khipus

One of the offerings, a pot containing a set of twenty-two khipus, was especially revealing, since this constituted a one of a kind discovery. Prior to that, khipus always appeared scattered in collections and museums all over the world, giving scarce references to their origin and no information about their original context.

Finally, archeologists and historians were presented with a properly controlled environment that opened theg doors to many possibilities to analyze these textiles and their elusive coding.

Based on this discovery, Anthropologist and khipu expert, Dr. Gary Urton suggests that it is important to consider the relation between the structure of khipus and the structure of the information recorded in them. 

This gives a logical sense to the work of the khipukamayuqs (khipu-keeper). These specialists in handling khipus were the only ones familiar with these codes, trained in differentiating and recording “data”. 

This only makes sense and has an order when taking into account the social, political and economic structure of the imperial organization. 

These khipus have three groups of cords each and an introductory segment of thirteen cords at the beginning of the khipu. These segments differentiate from the other groups in terms of color, number pattern and spacing. 

Amidst the different khipus from different areas, the introductory segments of thirteen cords would be recognized as a place identifier for “Puruchuco”.

Whether the information encoded into the khipus of Puruchuco is a summary or a partition, it constitutes direct material evidence that supports the ethnographic accounts of the complex hierarchy in the Inca bureaucracy.