The Quipu was a tool used by the Incas - and earlier societies - for record keeping and accounting. The word Quipu comes from Quechua [written: khipu] and means knot. The oldest Quipu dates back to 2,500 B.C. and were used until the colonization of the Spanish Empire when they were destroyed by the colonists. Quipus were usually made of cotton or wool based on llama or alpaca hair. These were colored and knotted. Once the threads were made, they were encoded in numerical values following a decimal-based positional system.
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A Quipu had a central string from which different strings of different colors, sizes and shapes emerged. Usually the colors represented sectors and the knots represented quantities (the absence of a knot implied a zero). It could also happen that from the main strings appeared other secondary strings directly related. Quipus have been a tool for the transmission and recording of information. 4,500 years later, a new way of recording and accounting was born. The new Quipu no longer has neither strings nor knots but keeps the intrinsic nature of the tool: a mechanism that facilitates and speeds up tasks that have been present since time immemorial.