Deciphering an ancient number system
In the film Paddington in Peru, which opened this weekend, the plot revolves around a string bracelet that is said to contain mystical secrets.
The bracelet is supposed to be a ‘khipu’, which was the Incan way of recording numbers. Knots were made on string, and these pieces of string were attached together in a big bundle. The Incans used khipus to record dates, taxes and measurements, among other things.
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