A yupana, a device used to tally sums with kernels
of maize or small stones, can be seen in the lower
left-hand corner in this illustration of a
quipucamayoc (quipu reader/maker) displaying his
quipu, or knotted accounting device. Guaman
Poma de Ayala, Felipe. El primer nueva corónica
y buen gobierno. Edited by John V. Murra and
Rolena Adorno, 332/360. Mexico City: Siglo
Veintiuno, 1980 [1615].Further Reading
Ascher, M., and R. Ascher. Mathematics of the Incas: Code of the Quipu. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications,
1997.
Lee, V. Design by Numbers: Architectural Order among the Incas. Wilson, WY: Sixpack Manco
Publications, 1996.
Urton, G. The Social Life of Numbers: A Quechua Ontology of Numbers and Philosophy of Arithmetic.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997.
■GARY URTON
ASTRONOMY
The overwhelming majority of information pertaining to Inca astronomy comes
from accounts written by Spaniards in the first few decades following the
conquest of the Inca Empire. Due to the almost complete extermination of
coastal populations soon after the Spanish conquest, most of our information on
this topic pertains to highland beliefs and practices, although scattered data are
available for the coast. While some of the accounts from the Inca capital of
Cuzco report on pillars or other constructions built to incorporate alignments to,
or permitting the sighting of, astronomical phenomena, very little evidence of
any such constructions has ever been identified or studied systematically by
archaeologists. Therefore, we are left primarily with the Spaniards’ accounts, as
well as what has been recovered from present-day Quechua-speaking
populations, who in a few ethnographic studies retain information pertaining to
the sun, moon, and stars that accords strikingly with testimony on astronomical
phenomena provided in the early Colonial-era, written testimony.