[tp at ai.mit.edu: Fwd: Re: Any idea of who could help? Thanks!]

[R. Hirschfeld]

From: Tommy Poggio <tp at ai.mit.edu>
Subject: Fwd: Re: Any idea of who could help? Thanks!
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 16:42:53 -0500


>>>>>This is a question from a Globe reporter...anybody with useful 
>>>>>pointers to relevant experts/people?


thanks!

t



>>>>>  03/27/2006 04:23:13 PM
>>>>>
>>>>>Dear Tommy -- I am wondering if you know anyone who might be able to help
>>>>>me with this?
>>>>>I wrote a while ago about a fascinating project focussed on 
>>>>>deciphering the
>>>>>Incan khipu (see below). The basic idea is that they are collections of
>>>>>knots used in the Incan empire to record information. It is known that 
>>>>>some
>>>>>of them contain numbers, perhaps recording census data or tax information
>>>>>for the empire. But some believe that the knots records language -- 
>>>>>perhaps
>>>>>histories or other narratives. Cracking this code would be hugely
>>>>>important, not to mention interesting, because it would open up the still
>>>>>very mysterious Incan empire the same way that ancient Egypt has been
>>>>>opened up.
>>>>>All this is a rather long-winded prelude to my question, which is whether
>>>>>there are people out there who are working on computational techniques to
>>>>>decipher ancient scripts, not necessarily the khipu problem. I am thinking
>>>>>of doing a story on this.
>>>>>Any thoughts or leads at all would be most appreciated. It would even be a
>>>>>help to talk to someone who has done cryptography who could explain 
>>>>>how the
>>>>>ancient scripts problem would be similar to, and different from, the
>>>>>problem of cracking a present-day encryption scheme.
>>>>>Let me know if you have any thoughts.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Best,
>>>>>Gareth
>>>>>
>>>>>----------------
>>>>>
>>>>>  SCHOLAR SEES STRANDS OF ANCIENT SECRETS
>>>>>        Author: By Gareth Cook, Globe Staff Date: 07/04/2003 Page: A1 
>>>>> Section:
>>>>>        National/Foreign
>>>>>  CAMBRIDGE - For centuries, the mighty Incan empire has confounded 
>>>>> researchers.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The Incas controlled territory up and down the spine of South 
>>>>> America, with a
>>>>>  sophisticated system of tributes and distribution that kept millions fed
>>>>>  through the seasons. They built irrigation systems and stone temples 
>>>>> in the
>>>>>  clouds.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  And yet they had no writing. For scholars, this has been like trying 
>>>>> to imagine
>>>>>  how the Romans could have administered their vast empire without 
>>>>> written Latin.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Now, after more than a decade of fieldwork and research, a professor 
>>>>> at Harvard
>>>>>  University believes he has uncovered a language of binary code 
>>>>> recorded in
>>>>>  knotted strings - a writing system unlike virtually any other.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The strings are found on "khipus," ancient Incan objects that look 
>>>>> something
>>>>>  like mops. About 600 khipus (also spelled "quipu") survive in 
>>>>> museums and
>>>>>  private collections, and archeologists have long known that the 
>>>>> elaborately
>>>>>  knotted strings of some khipus recorded numbers like an abacus. 
>>>>> Harvard's Gary
>>>>>  Urton said the khipus contain a wealth of overlooked information 
>>>>> hidden in
>>>>>  their construction details, like the way the knots are tied - and 
>>>>> that these
>>>>>  could be the building blocks of a lost writing system which records the
>>>>>  history, myths, and poetry of the Incas.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The theory has Incan scholars abuzz. The discovery of true Incan 
>>>>> writing would
>>>>>  revolutionize their field the same way that deciphering the Egyptian
>>>>>  hieroglyphics or Mayan glyphs lifted a veil from those 
>>>>> civilizations. But it
>>>>>  also has broader interest because the khipus could constitute what 
>>>>> is, to
>>>>>  Western eyes, a very unorthodox writing system, using knots and 
>>>>> strings in
>>>>>  three dimensions instead of markings on a flat expanse of paper, 
>>>>> clay, or
>>>>>  stone.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  "What makes this work so interesting is that what is being expressed 
>>>>> is being
>>>>>  conceptualized in such a different way than we conceptualize," said 
>>>>> Sabine
>>>>>  MacCormack, a historian of the Romans and the Incas who is a 
>>>>> professor at the
>>>>>  University of Notre Dame. "This is about an expression of the human 
>>>>> mind, the
>>>>>  likes of which we don't have elsewhere."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The only way to prove Urton's theory correct would be to translate 
>>>>> the khipus,
>>>>>  which no one has yet done. In his new book, he proposes a new method for
>>>>>  transcribing the knotted strings which he believes could lead to 
>>>>> breakthroughs.
>>>>>  And his work, funded in part by a genius grant from the MacArthur 
>>>>> Foundation,
>>>>>  has helped fuel a resurgence of scholarly interest in khipus. Later 
>>>>> this month,
>>>>>  the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art in Santiago is opening the 
>>>>> world's
>>>>>  first exhibit dedicated to the khipu.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  "We are on the cusp of a very hot period," said Frank Salomon, a 
>>>>> professor of
>>>>>  anthropology at the University of Wisconsin who has studied khipus 
>>>>> extensively.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The khipu mystery dates to the early 16th century, when the Incas were
>>>>>  conquered by Francisco Pizarro and the Spanish set about destroying 
>>>>> their
>>>>>  culture. The missionaries sent to South America tried to eliminate 
>>>>> all touches
>>>>>  of the old gods, including the strange stringed textiles that the 
>>>>> Incas said
>>>>>  held their histories.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The Spanish chroniclers often exaggerated, but they did record 
>>>>> histories of
>>>>>  tributes and other stories they said were "read" to them by 
>>>>> khipukamayuq - or
>>>>>  knot keepers - from strings of knots.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  In 1923, researcher L. Leland Locke was able to show that many 
>>>>> khipus recorded
>>>>>  numbers like an abacus, with knots in positions representing the 
>>>>> hundred's,
>>>>>  ten's, or one's place. He concluded that khipus were an accounting 
>>>>> tool and
>>>>>  scholars largely lost interest.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Locke, however, missed many subtleties in the khipus, which could 
>>>>> make them a
>>>>>  richer tool for communication, said Urton, whose research was 
>>>>> described in a
>>>>>  recent issue of the journal Science, and whose new book is called 
>>>>> "Signs of the
>>>>>  Inka Khipu."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  The attention to khipus has its roots in insights from Marcia and Robert
>>>>>  Ascher, a husband-and-wife team who began an extensive survey and 
>>>>> analysis of
>>>>>  khipus in 1968, and on the observations of Bill Conklin, a textile 
>>>>> specialist
>>>>>  at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., who noticed that khipus 
>>>>> were spun
>>>>>  and tied in surprisingly complex and varied ways.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Urton is proposing a system for tackling the meaning of the knots. 
>>>>> Each knot,
>>>>>  Urton suggests, can be thought of as a series of decisions, such as 
>>>>> whether to
>>>>>  make it of cotton or wool, to tie the knot with a crossing string 
>>>>> that begins
>>>>>  in the upper left or the upper right, and to use string that is spun 
>>>>> clockwise
>>>>>  or counterclockwise.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Not all scholars are persuaded by Urton's ideas.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  "I don't see that this proposal arises from the actuality of the 
>>>>> khipus," said
>>>>>  Marcia Ascher, an emerita professor of mathematics at Ithaca 
>>>>> College. "I don't
>>>>>  see it being shown to fit or explain any of them."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Using money from the National Science Foundation, Urton has undertaken a
>>>>>  comprehensive project to record as many khipus as possible in great 
>>>>> detail,
>>>>>  including the binary information he says could be so important. He 
>>>>> hopes to
>>>>>  place it all in a single computer database and give access to other 
>>>>> scholars
>>>>>  and the public in the hopes that somebody will see ways to crack the 
>>>>> code. He
>>>>>  is being helped by Carrie Brezine, a weaver and database specialist 
>>>>> who did her
>>>>>  undergraduate thesis in mathematics.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  Last week, Brezine brought in a printout of transcriptions taken 
>>>>> from khipus
>>>>>  found recently in a cave overlooking the Lake of the Condors in 
>>>>> northern Peru.
>>>>>  As he sat in his office, surrounded by Andean textiles, he noticed 
>>>>> long strings
>>>>>  of numbers that were virtually identical on three of the khipus - an 
>>>>> indication
>>>>>  that information was being copied from one to another, the way 
>>>>> medieval scribes
>>>>>  copied books by hand.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  "It was one of those eureka moments," he said with a boyish grin. 
>>>>> "This is
>>>>>  really cool."
>>>>>
----------

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