According to the records of the colonists, the official name of the "knot keeper" of the Incas is "Chipkamayas", who can see with their eyes and touch with their fingers like blind people to distinguish the meaning of the records, and sometimes they are assisted by putting stones. 1542, the colonial ruler cristobal Wicca Decastro recruited the Mayans of Chipka to "translate" these ropes in order to compile Inca history. The Spaniards recorded their "translation" events, but left no rope. In fact, those ropes were destroyed by the Spanish. Up to now, all the writing systems we know for daily communication are written, drawn or carved on a plane. Chip is completely different from these words, and it is composed of some three-dimensional knots. The chip consists of a main rope and a "vertical belt" tied to it. The diameter of the main rope is generally 0.5~0.7 cm, and there are many thin "vertical belts" tied on it, which are generally above 100 and sometimes as much as 1500. These vertical belts are sometimes tied with some inferior ropes, and there are many knots on the ropes. The result of this, as George Joseph, a mathematical historian at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, said, "is like a mop with water that we usually see."
Locke found that the Chip representing numbers is a horizontal decimal, and the knot at the bottom of each rope represents a unit. Other higher-level knots represent decimal numbers, hundreds, thousands and so on. "The mystery is solved," archaeologist Charles W. Meade said excitedly after learning of Locke's discovery. "We now know what the chip was used for before there was a written record. It is just a tool to record numbers. "
However, Locke's method did not crack about 600 chips that survived from the Spanish, nor did it specify what objects were recorded. According to Robert Ashe, an archaeologist at Cornell University, about 20% of the chips are "obviously not used for counting". 198 1 year, Asher and his wife, mathematician Mathea Asher published a book, claiming that those "anonymous" chips may be an early form of recording, which rekindled scholars' enthusiasm for chip research.
Mr. and Mrs. Ashe are mainly concerned with the knot of the chip. However, in 1997, William J. Conkling, a research assistant at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., pointed out that knots are only part of the Chip system. Conkling may be the first textile expert to study chips. He said, "When I started to look at these chips, I saw a rotating, folded and colorful password system, and the production of each rope was very complicated. I realized that 90% of the information may have been put in the rope before the knot was tied. "
With this information, Ulton boldly assumed that the chip maker made use of the characteristics of rope rotation and weaving, and stipulated a series of different binary meanings, including the type of material (cotton or wool), the direction of rotation and weaving, the direction of vertical belt tied to the spindle (positive or negative), the direction of the knot itself and so on. In this way, each knot is a "seven-bit binary code", and this system is not only that, because Chip has at least 24 possible rope colors. Each permutation is 26×24, that is, 1536 possible "information units", which is more than 1000 ~ 1500 symbols in Semu cuneiform and almost twice as many as 600~800 symbols in Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphics. In Ulton's view, chips are not only a chronicle text, but also "like the coding system used in computer languages today, they are basically arranged in binary."
If Ulton is right, the chip will be a unique writing system. It is the only three-dimensional "text" file in the world, and it is also the only text that uses binary for daily communication. In addition, it may belong to a few "recognized words". The words in Chinese characters are like numbers or dance symbols, which express meaning, but they are not pronounced like English, such as Mayan characters and Chinese. "A language system does not necessarily represent spoken language to convey the meaning to be expressed," explained Catherine Julian, a historian who studies Andean culture at the University of West Chicago.
Although communication with knots seems strange to Europeans and Americans, it has deep roots in Andean culture. Heather Lachman, an archaeologist at the Massachusetts Center for Archaeology and Animal Behavior Materials Research and Technology, said that the chip is just an example of "people manipulating fibers to solve basic engineering problems in a technical environment". Lachman said that in Andean culture, from fixed bags and tunics to slingshots and suspension bridges, textiles are "ways for people to exchange all kinds of information and make tools". Similarly, Ulton explained that it is a characteristic of people in this area to use binary opposing views. They live in a society that is "unusually organized through duality". Their residents are divided into "upper half" and "lower half", and they write poems in pairs. He said that in this environment, "chips are more familiar to people."
Scholars do not fully agree with this view, and think that the chip is a kind of "text" to record events. "According to the theory of cultural evolution, people think that culture is not so good unless they record it." Patricia J. Lyon, from the Andean Research Center of the University of Berkeley, said, "People really need to write down what they think is important on the chip." Lyon agrees with Bernard Cobb, the chronicle of Jesus in17th century. He believes that the chip is a "memory retention device, not what you think." Mr. and Mrs. Ashe are mainly concerned with the knot of the chip. However, in 1997, William J. Conkling, a research assistant at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., pointed out that knots are only part of the Chip system. Conkling may be the first textile expert to study chips. He said, "When I started to look at these chips, I saw a rotating, folded and colorful password system, and the production of each rope was very complicated. I realized that 90% of the information may have been put in the rope before the knot was tied. "
With this information, Ulton boldly assumed that the chip maker made use of the characteristics of rope rotation and weaving, and stipulated a series of different binary meanings, including the type of material (cotton or wool), the direction of rotation and weaving, the direction of vertical belt tied to the spindle (positive or negative), the direction of the knot itself and so on. In this way, each knot is a "seven-bit binary code", and this system is not only that, because Chip has at least 24 possible rope colors. Each arrangement is 26×24, that is, 1536 possible "information units", which is more than 1000- 1500 symbols in Semu cuneiform and almost twice as many as 600-800 symbols in Egyptian and Mayan hieroglyphs. In Ulton's view, chips are not only a chronicle text, but also "like the coding system used in computer languages today, they are basically arranged in binary."
If Ulton is right, the chip will be a unique writing system. It is the only three-dimensional "text" file in the world, and it is also the only text that uses binary for daily communication. In addition, it may belong to a few "recognized words". The words in Chinese characters are like numbers or dance symbols, which express meaning, but they are not pronounced like English, such as Mayan characters and Chinese. "A language system does not necessarily represent spoken language to convey the meaning to be expressed," explained Catherine Julian, a historian who studies Andean culture at the University of West Chicago.
Although communication with knots seems strange to Europeans and Americans, it has deep roots in Andean culture. Heather Lachman, an archaeologist at the Massachusetts Center for Archaeology and Animal Behavior Materials Research and Technology, said that the chip is just an example of "people manipulating fibers to solve basic engineering problems in a technical environment". Lachman said that in Andean culture, from fixed bags and tunics to slingshots and suspension bridges, textiles are "ways for people to exchange all kinds of information and make tools". Similarly, Ulton explained that it is a characteristic of people in this area to use binary opposing views. They live in a society that is "unusually organized through duality". Their residents are divided into "upper half" and "lower half", and they write poems in pairs. He said that in this environment, "chips are more familiar to people."
Scholars do not fully agree with this view, and think that the chip is a kind of "text" to record events. "According to the theory of cultural evolution, people think that culture is not so good unless they record it." Patricia J. Lyon, from the Andean Research Center of the University of Berkeley, said, "People really need to write down what they think is important on the chip." Lyon agrees with Bernard Cobb, the chronicle of Jesus in17th century. He believes that the chip is a "memory retention device, not what you think."