We suggest that any khipu moving within the state administrative system bearing an initial arrangement of three figure-eight knots would have been immediately recognizable to Inca administrators as an account pertaining to the palace of Puruchuco.

Gary Urton

Administrative Arrangement Bearing Eight Figure Initial Knots Moving State Suggest System Three Within

Related Quotes

We hypothesize that the arrangement of three figure-eight knots at the start of these khipu represented the place identifier, or toponym, Puruchuco,

ArrangementEightFigure

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

ArrangementConstitutionState

We know a great deal of the bureaucracy was occupied in overseeing tribute labor for the state, so I suspect a large percentage of the quipu had to do with labor.

BureaucracyLaborTribute

We think those may be the narrative ones,

NarrativeOnesThink

For the first time, really, we can see how information that was of interest to the state was moving up and down in a set of interrelated khipu.

InformationInterestTime