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Can you solve it? The knotty problem of Paddington in Peru

news.movim.eu / TheGuardian • 11 November 2024

Deciphering an ancient number system

In the film Paddington in Peru, which opened this weekend, the plot revolves around a string bracelet that is said to contain mystical secrets.

The bracelet is supposed to be a ‘khipu’, which was the Incan way of recording numbers. Knots were made on string, and these pieces of string were attached together in a big bundle. The Incans used khipus to record dates, taxes and measurements, among other things.