In Andes, knotty Inca mystery endures
By Simon Romero | The New York Times | Updated: 2010-09-05 09:23
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The 500 inhabitants of San Cristobal de Rapaz in the Peruvian Andes subsist by herding and farming. Candelario Condor Falcon, a village leader, in the ceremonial house that holds one of the last known collection of khipus that are still in ritual use. Photographs by Meridith Kohut for The New York Times |
SAN CRISTOBAL DE RAPAZ, Peru - This Andean village's isolation 4,000 meters above sea 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.
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