Inca Quipu Accounting Cords

Timeline

1. c. 1591–1595Cuzco · CuzcoIn the early 1590s, local officials in the Viceroyalty of Peru still relied on quipu keepers to tally Indian communities' labor service, textiles, and silver tribute; the dual bookkeeping of quipu alongside Spanish documents became an everyday tool of colonial exaction.
2. c. 1593–1598Andean highlands · AndesUnder colonial pressure, khipukamayuq continued to pass on knot-tying skills and interpretive knowledge, recording land allocation, marriage genealogies, and local history for their communities; thus the quipu served both as an administrative ledger and as collective memory.
3. c. 1596–1600Lima · LimaBy the turn of the century, colonial authorities and clergy in Lima, Cuzco, and elsewhere collected quipu samples and attempted to understand their knotting rules by comparing them with Spanish account books, leaving early written descriptions for later study of the Inca statistical system.