Lakhasly

In the New World , the number string is best illustrated by the knotted cords , called quipus , of the Incas of Peru .Through gradual expansion and warfare , they came to rule a vast empire consisting of the coastal and mountain regions of present - day Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , and the northern parts of Chile and Argentina .A striking accomplishment was their creation of a vast network ( as much as 14,000 miles ) of roads and bridges linking the far- ung parts of the empire .They were originally a South American Indian tribe , or a collection of kindred tribes , living in the central Andean mountainous highlands .The isolation of the Incas from the horrors of the Spanish Conquest ended early in 1532 when 180 conquistadors landed in northern Peru .The Incas became renowned for their engineering skills , constructing stone temples and public buildings of a great size .By the end of the year , the invaders had seized the capital city of Cuzco and imprisoned the emperor .The Spaniards imposed a way of life on the people that within about 40 years would destroy the Inca culture .

In the New World , the number string is best illustrated by the knotted cords , called quipus , of the Incas of Peru . They were originally a South American Indian tribe , or a collection of kindred tribes , living in the central Andean mountainous highlands . Through gradual expansion and warfare , they came to rule a vast empire consisting of the coastal and mountain regions of present - day Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , and the northern parts of Chile and Argentina . The Incas became renowned for their engineering skills , constructing stone temples and public buildings of a great size . A striking accomplishment was their creation of a vast network ( as much as 14,000 miles ) of roads and bridges linking the far- ung parts of the empire . The isolation of the Incas from the horrors of the Spanish Conquest ended early in 1532 when 180 conquistadors landed in northern Peru . By the end of the year , the invaders had seized the capital city of Cuzco and imprisoned the emperor . The Spaniards imposed a way of life on the people that within about 40 years would destroy the Inca culture . When the Spanish conquerors arrived in the sixteenth century , they observed that each city in Peru had an " of cial of the knots , " who maintained complex accounts by means of knots and loops in strands of various colors . Performing duties not unlike those of the city treasurer of today , the quipu keepers recorded all of cial transactions concerning the land and subjects of the city and submitted the strings to the central government in Cuzco . The quipus were important in the Inca Empire , because apart from these knots no system of writing was ever developed there . The quipu was made of a thick main cord or crossbar to which were attached ner cords of different lengths and colors ; ordinarily the cords hung down like the strands of a mop . Each of the pendent strings represented a certain item to be tallied ; one might be used to show the number of sheep , for instance , another for goats , and a third for lambs . The knots themselves indicated numbers , the values of which varied according to the type of knot used and its speci c position on the strand . A decimal system was used , with the knot representing units placed nearest the bottom , the tens appearing immediately above , then the hundreds , and so on ; absence of a knot denoted zero . Bunches of cords were tied off by a single main thread , a summation cord , whose knots gave the total count for each bunch . The range of possibilities for numerical representation in the quipus allowed the Incas to keep incredibly detailed administrative records , despite their ignorance of the written word . More recent ( 1872 ) evidence of knots as a counting device occurs in India ; some of the Santal headsmen , being illiterate , made knots in strings of four different colors to maintain an up - to - date census . To appreciate the quipu fully , we should notice the numerical values represented by the tied knots . Just three types of knots were used : a gure - eight knot standing for 1 , a long knot denoting one of the values 2 through 9 , depending on the number of twists in the knot , and a single knot also indicating 1. The gure - eight knot and long knot appear only in the lowest ( units ) position on a cord , while clusters of single knots can appear in the other spaced positions . Because pendant cords have the same length , an empty position ( a value of zero ) would be apparent on comparison with adjacent cords .