An Inca 1040?Think accounting is the invention of modern minds? Not likely. Two Harvard Harvard, town (1990 pop. 12,329), Worcester co., E central Mass.; inc. 1732. A Shaker house and cemetery, a Native American museum, and a Harvard observatory are there. researchers are convinced that ancient Incas tracked inventory and taxes through a three-tiered accounting system using knotted bundles of threads. The researchers--and many scholars pondering pon·der v. pon·dered, pon·der·ing, pon·ders v.tr. To weigh in the mind with thoroughness and care. v.intr. To reflect or consider with thoroughness and care. their report--believe the colorful knotted quipu strings found at a 13th century archaeological site near Lima, Peru, formed an early abacus system The abacus system of mental calculation is a system where users mentally visualize an abacus to do calculations. No physical abacus is used; only the answers are written down. This system is being propagated in China, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan. the Incas used to track the units of labor and time upon which taxes were based. The first two tiers of knots are double-entry accounts, they think, and the third is a summary of the numbers. If their interpretation is accepted by the academic community, it will put to rest the "Inca paradox paradox, statement that appears self-contradictory but actually has a basis in truth, e.g., Oscar Wilde's "Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. "--the question of why these early Americans had the only complex empire with no written form of communication. They may have had no novels, it seems, but they did indeed have "books." |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion