Quipu
OriginPeru
Earliest1400
TypeEncoding
About Quipu
Knotted cords used by the Inca empire for accounting and records. Colors, knot types, and spacing encode numbers in a base 10 positional system. Some quipus seem to carry narrative content, still undeciphered. Specialists called quipucamayocs memorized the meanings. Spanish chroniclers recorded quipus that stored laws and history. Hundreds survive in museums.
More Encodings
Morse Code
Developed by Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail. The letter E is a single dot, the most efficien...
Pitman Shorthand
A phonetic shorthand by Isaac Pitman where stroke thickness distinguishes related sounds. ...
Gregg Shorthand
An American shorthand by John Robert Gregg based on flowing elliptical curves. Light-line ...