/khipu-simulator

Final project for my Archaeology of the Americas class

Primary LanguagePythonMIT LicenseMIT

khipu-simulator

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About the Khipu

The khipu is a device used by the Inka empire during its rule, for accounting quantities of different resources, such as population, food savings, tax, etc. There are also khipus that are considered to be narrative devices, and not only accounting devices, but the former have not yet been deciphered and will not be considered on the development of this project. This program written in Python will allow you to see three different pieces of different khipus

The one called "Check Sum" (UR275) is an excert of a khipu found at the Inkawasi sight which exemplifies the check sum system developed by the inca.

The "Census" (UR11) is an excert of a Khipu which, according to Gary Urton, was accounting for the population size of the Chachapoyas region, and recorded the collapse of the population after the arrival of the Spaniards.

The "Rosetta" (UR88) is the one Urton theorises there is a written record by the Spanish which relates to it. The khipu was found in the Santa Valley, and Urton believes that it records a "revisita", a government visit to account for the population of a region.

System Requirements

python 3.9.6
tk 8.6.11.1-1
tcl 8.6.11-1
Panibo font (.oft included in /includes)

How to run it

python main.py

Images

khipu-menu
ur275
ur11
ur88
credits

References for the development of this project

Urton, G. (2017). Inka History in Knots: Reading Khipus as Primary Sources. University of Texas Press.

Hyland, S. (2017). Writing with twisted cords: The inscriptive capacity of andean khipus. Current Anthropology, 58(3), 412-419.

I used the color hashes from this other repository by Dave Griffiths aka nebogeo

Khipu Field Guide

this README.md was inspired by Appinha's README.md