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The khipu was a recording system introduced by the societies that inhabited the Andean region of South America before the Spanish conquest (AD 1532). Comprising a main cord from which hanging knotted cords of different colors and sizes branch off, the majority of khipus store numerical information used to manage resources and populations. There are approximately 1,400 khipus that are dispersed in collections of museums and private institutions around the world. This complicates access for study and, as they are objects made from cotton and camelid fiber, they are especially delicate and sensitive to changes in temperature and humidity. Consequently, while khipus have been an object of scholarly fascination for over a century, their full semiotic nature remains one of the most significant unresolved enigmas of the pre-Columbian world.

To address these challenges, Proyecto Khipus, an interdisciplinary initiative by the Universidad del Pacífico in collaboration with scholars from Harvard and St. Andrews aims at contributing with the knowledge and dissemination of Andean khipus, integrating Humanities and Engineering to develop high-fidelity 3D digital models, using Blender for design and Python for coding. Utilizing a corpus of 29 khipus from the Art Museum of Lima (MALI), the project has constructed a database featuring over sixty categories of archaeological data, including fibre torsion, colour, and knot morphology, all of them features that contain information within a khipu.  For this purpose, the alternative of training an AI model is being explored to reduce or simplify the code that synthesizes the construction process of the models corresponding to the designs in Blender. This will subsequently allow the complete khipu to be generated according to its cataloging stored in the database.

This presentation outlines the current progress of the project. These models will be hosted on a virtual platform designed to democratise access for researchers and the public, effectively reducing the need for physical handling while allowing researchers to "virtually manipulate" the objects in ways impossible in a museum setting. This work establishes a scalable decolonial framework for Andean digital heritage, providing new insights into ancient information systems while ensuring their long-term preservation. Once this model is tested, the project will move to a second stage, incorporating models of khipus housed in other repositories in Peru and abroad, based on a structured database. 

Project outputs

• Virtual platform that will integrate interactive digital models produced based on an updated registration and archaeological documentation of khipus, conceived as a tool available to students, teachers, at both school and university levels, as well as researchers and general audiences.
• Documentation of  29 khipus in order to assess the existence of recurrent patterns that may contribute to studies attempting to elucidate questions about the ancient methods of recording information in a khipu.
• To contribute to the preservation of khipus for future generations by reducing their physical manipulation for study.
• To generate a work model and a platform that can integrate, in a second stage, other khipu collections located in different repositories across the world.

Inca Khipu. Cotton. / The Khipus team working at the Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)  

Views of work in progress of Khipu digital models in Blender.