The Khipu Database Project

Dr. Gary Urton is Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Pre-Columbian Studies in the Archeology Department at Harvard University. He has decades of experience living in the Andes and has been studying khipu intensely for over 12 years. Dr. Urton has personally recorded spin direction, knot direction, and attachment on hundreds of khipu, augmenting the existing information gathered by the Aschers in the 1970s and 1980s. In addition he has recorded data on many previously unstudied khipu, including the important collection in Chachapoyas. His recent book "Signs of the Inka Khipu" proposes a theory of binary coding as one way to structure continuing khipu analysis.

Dr. Gary Urton with the Puruchuco khipu collection. Summer 2004.

Dr. Urton's cv

List of Publications

Carrie Brezine is in her third year as database administrator for the Khipu Database Project. Her background in mathematics, combined with her skills of spinning and weaving, give her unique tools for describing and analyzing khipu. Ms. Brezine has spent time in the Cuzco region of the Andes studying the indigenous weaving of the area, especially skirt borders and intersecting warps.

Carrie Brezine near Rapaz, Peru. Summer 2004.

©2003-2004 Gary Urton/Carrie Brezine