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A Big Kipu (Quipu) with Predominance of Subsidiary Clusters, Coast, Late Horizon, 1470-1550 CE

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Inca, Inca Imperial Period

Multicolored camelid fiber cords. 

Kipu is a device for the registry of information in numerical form. It consists of  primary horizontal cord to which a variable number of vertical cords are attached, and the numbers were introduced by knots. A single knot is up to nine loops to give the number nine. The absence of knots in the denoted position indicates zero. The units were at the father or lower end of the strong, higher multiples of tens, hundreds or thousands were place on the upper part.

Diameter: 182 cm

Catalogue: 283
(for more details, refer to this number in the literature here: https://shorturl.at/fisMU)

Provenance: Private collection, Jean Pierre Cottier and Fiorella Cottier-Angeli, Geneva, Switzerland. Purchased by Yossef Maiman between 2000-2008. Estate of Yossef Maiman.

Notes: Most items from the Cottier collection were purchased from prominent collectors such as Carlos Campilli (Miami), Sophie Pdgorska (Geneva) and Marguerite Motte (Paris).

Literature: Makowski, Krzystof, Rosenzweif, Alfredo, Diaz Jimenes, Maria Jesus, Weaving for the Afterlife – Peruvian Textiles from the Maiman Collection, Kal Press LTD, Israel, 2006.