News Anthropology

A 104-centimeter-long hair could rewrite recordkeeping in Inca society

It came from a knotted string device thought to be made, and used, only by Inca elite

A researcher is shown holding a device over a tray of strings, an example of an Inca recordkeeping device called a khipu.

Anthropologist Sabine Hyland examines an Inca recordkeeping device called a khipu.

Gabriel Buti

By Javier Barbuzano

The knotted, intricately braided string was like no other anthropologist Sabine Hyland had ever seen.