How Does Quipus (Passport to Peru Highlights) Work?

Quipus are like super smart ropes that help people remember important information without writing it down.

Imagine you have a bag full of strings, and each string has knots tied in different places. Each knot is like a number or a letter, just like how your fingers can count to 10! The Inca people used these knots and ropes to keep track of things like how many animals they had, how much food was stored, or who owed them what.

• Knots are like numbers: the more knots, the bigger the number.
• Positions on the rope matter: just like how the digit "2" in 25 means something different than the "2" in 12.

So if someone wanted to send a message about how many sheep were in a village, they would tie a certain number of knots on a rope and pass it along, kind of like sending a message in a string!

The people who read the quipus could look at the pattern of the knots and figure out what the message was saying. It's like having a special code that only you and your friend know!