500-year-old Inca khipu reveals commoners were literate

Researchers analyzed a 500-year-old Inca khipu containing human hair and discovered its creator was a commoner, not an elite as previously assumed.
Chemical analysis of the 104-centimeter hair strand revealed a diet of tubers, legumes, and greens with little meat or maize beer – typical of lower-class Andeans rather than ruling elites.
The findings challenge Spanish colonial accounts that claimed only high-status male nobles called khipukamayuqs could create these sophisticated knotted-cord record-keeping systems.
The discovery suggests khipu literacy was more widespread in Inca society than historians believed, potentially connecting ancient practices to modern khipu use by commoners in the Andes.
The study could inspire re-examination of hundreds of unstudied khipus in museums worldwide, offering new ways to understand Inca history through indigenous sources rather than colonizer accounts.

A study of a 500-year-old Inca khipu made from human hair has overturned long-held assumptions about who could create and use these sophisticated record-keeping devices, revealing that commoners in the empire may have been literate in this ancient form of communication.

Published Tuesday in the journal Science Advances, research by anthropologist Sabine Hyland from the University of St Andrews analyzed the isotopic composition of a 104-centimeter strand of human hair woven into the primary cord of a khipu dating to 1498 CE.ypradio

Challenging Elite-Only Theory

The findings challenge Spanish colonial accounts that suggested only male nobles called khipukamayuqs from high-status families could produce khipus – the knotted cord devices that served as the Inca Empire’s primary system for recording information. These bureaucrats were believed to have exclusive training in khipu literacy and enjoyed privileged access to elite foods including meat and abundant maize beer.iflscience

However, isotope analysis of the hair revealed a diet consisting primarily of tubers, legumes, and greens with little meat or maize – characteristic of a commoner’s diet rather than the elite. “It was a complete shock,” Hyland told IFLScience about receiving the results. “I said, ‘What? This person’s eating potatoes and legumes?!'”ypradio

The diet analysis also suggested the khipu maker likely lived in the Andean highlands, consistent with commoner populations rather than the administrative centers where elite khipukamayuqs would have been based.gizmodo

Implications for Inca Literacy

The discovery suggests khipu literacy was more widespread throughout Inca society than previously understood. In both colonial and modern Andean communities, incorporating hair into a khipu serves as a signature indicating authorship and responsibility for its contents. In Inca tradition, hair carried a person’s essence, making its inclusion particularly meaningful.sciencenews

“The more I looked at it, the more I realized it’s actually very beautiful,” Hyland noted about the khipu’s intricate construction, including “little fine braids and ornamentation” that suggested high skill despite its creator’s common social status.iflscience

These findings align with modern khipu use, where commoners including peasant farmers, herders, and female peasants have continued creating and using these devices into the 19th and 20th centuries. Modern khipus differ structurally from ancient ones but maintain similar principles of encoding information through knots, colors, and cord arrangements.gizmodo

Broader Research Impact

The study represents an unprecedented approach to understanding khipu makers, as most surviving examples come from looted tombs that severed connections between artifacts and their creators. Museums worldwide hold hundreds of unstudied khipus, and researchers expect this methodology could inspire similar analyses of other specimens containing human hair.gizmodo

“Ultimately, this gets us closer to being able to tell Inca histories using Inca sources,” Harvard khipu researcher Manny Medrano, who was not involved in the study, told NPR. “We need to tell a story of literacy and of writing and of recordkeeping in the Inca Empire that is way more plural.”ypradio