Quipu by Ripley Cleghorn

This visualization is a graphical representation of one of the Quipu in the Smithsonian collection. Quipu (also written Khipu) were an ancient record keeping device created in Central and South America by indigenous Andeans, prior to Spanish colonization. Of the twenty or so in the Smithsonian collection, this was the only one that was also included in the external Khipu Database Project, run by Harvard researcher Gary Urton. This external database allowed me to use the data in an excel format to create the visualization. The aim of the project is exploratory in nature, and hopefully aids in a basic understanding of how these recording devices used knots to keep track of numeric data. Eventually I would love to include more of the qualitative aspects of these devices, such as cord material and color.